Among the Thousand Islands. 583 



naturally impregnable, and at the precipitous side was probably 

 defended merely by a stockade. 



Numbers of graves lie in a flat field immediately back of the fort, 

 many of which have been excavated by relic-seekers in search of 

 French buttons or shoe and knee buckles. A number of ghost-like 

 rose-bushes standing starkly here and there, long since past the 

 lusty age of flower-bearing, probably marked out paths through this 

 cemetery in the wilderness. Back in the island, in a copse, are the 

 remains of an Indian burying-ground, where numbers of stone arrow- 

 heads, tomahawks, etc., have been picked up at different times ; and 

 to the right of the fortress, immediately upon the bluff overlooking 

 the Canadian Channel, are still older graves, where, it is said, as the 

 bluff slowly wears away, an occasional grinning skull or grisly bone 

 is exposed to the long excluded light of heaven. 



In this vicinity, numbers of excellent old-fashioned wrought nails 

 are constantly being plowed up or otherwise collected, some build- 

 ings being almost completely joined with them. 



While here, we had an excellent opportunity of gaining a practi- 

 cal knowledge of the daily life of the island farmers, being obliged 

 to lodge for a time at a little farm-house that nestled beneath the 

 brow of the old fortification, like a swallow's nest in a cannon's 

 mouth. 



The proprietor did not seem overzealous to accommodate us; for 

 what sane man, of his own free choice, would sit day after day in the 

 broiling sun sketching the old chimneys? The bill of fare of our 

 supper with the farm hands consisted of stewed potatoes, bread and 

 butter, and pie, with the addition of scalding tea. The tea was per- 

 haps rather lacking in the titillating taste of the herb itself, but any 

 weakness in that direction was fully compensated for by the thick- 

 ness of the bread and the solidity of the pie. After this repast, we 

 were solemnly shown to our apartment immediately above the 

 kitchen, dining and reception room, and in consequence intensely- 

 hot on this midsummer's night. Our sleeping chamber was evi- 

 dently the room of state, hung with wonderful wall-paper, the floor 

 piefoed by the arm of a stove-pipe from the room below. Here 

 stood the wash-stand, without the usual accompaniments of ewer, 

 basin, and looking-glass ; and our couches, — one a trundle-bed, and 

 the other a gigantic four-poster of antiquated date. The stove-pipe 



