Toronto to Collingwood. 139 



Indians with great awe and reverence, as being the abode of 

 the Great Spirit. The extreme point of the promontory- 

 separating the lake from the bay is called Cabot's Head. 

 Towards the eastern extremity of the island, where the width 

 is greatest, two arms of the lake run so far into the land as 

 to approach within three miles of each other, thus forming 

 an isthmus, and nearly divide the island into two parts. On 

 this the large Indian reserve, the numbers of its aboriginal 

 occupants are annually getting thinner, and the day is not 

 far distant when the ploughshare of the Anglo-Saxon will 

 utterly have despoiled these once happy hunting grounds. 

 The land, however, is not very good here, being too stony 

 for arable purposes ; but as pasture land, it is very productive. 

 The village of Penetanguishene is sheltered by hills of sand 

 and rolled blocks, bearing evidence of the war of waters, 

 when this part of what is now dry land was covered with the 

 inland sea, upon the surface of which only occasional tops ot 

 mountains and lines of rocky ridges were to be seen like 

 islands studding the vast expanse, as the Manitoulin and its 

 adjacent islets stud the waters to the north. 



Lonely Island, Squaw and Papoose Island, Clapperton, 

 Cockburn, and St. Joseph, are the largest among the islands 

 which lie on the route, none of them remarkable except for 

 the wild scenery of the headlands, and the lofty mountains 

 of the mainland, make an appropriate back-ground. 

 After skirting St. Joseph Island, Campement D'Ours is 

 passed, lying contiguous, where are several rocky islets 

 forming an intricate channel called the Narrows. On these 

 islands are found beautiful specimens of copper ore, and 

 some most exquisite kinds of moss. The trees on these 

 islands are all scrubby and dwarfish, owing, doubtless, to the 

 scantiness of the soil. The whole of this group of islands, 

 forming a perfect archipelago, have all probably, been at one 

 time part of the mainland ; but volcanic agency, some mighty 

 convulsion of nature, which seems to have exerted itself with 



