CLEVELAND TO TOLEDO. 249 



into tne Wyandot country through Sandusky Bay. 

 To have attempted to ride alone on horseback in those 

 days would have been a foolhardy, if not a fatal 

 undertaking. Now the screech of an engine-whistle 

 announced the approach of a train on the Lake Shore 

 Road, the great wheels thundered by, and Paul, alert 

 and trembling, was ready to dash away. How differ- 

 ent it would have been in those old pioneer times ! 

 The horseman would have been the one to tremble 

 then, his hand reach for his rifle, his eyes strained 

 towards the thicket from whence the expected yell 

 of the sava2:e was to come. 



Among the first proprietors of this section were the 

 Eries. These were followed by the resistless Iroquois, 

 and after them the Wyandots and Ottawas, who seem 

 to have left the strongest impress upon the hills and 

 valleys of Ohio. One of these tribes, the Wyandots? 

 called the bay near which they built their wigwams 

 Sse-san-don-ske, meaning '^ Lake of the Cold Water," 

 and from this the present name of the city comes. In 

 the early days it was called Ogontz, after a big chief 

 of that name who lived there before the vear 1812. 

 All about were rich hunting-grounds, which accounts 

 for its having been chosen by the Indians in times of 

 peace; and even now Sandusky is held to be one 

 of the o-reatcst fish-markets in America. 



The place was bound to be attractive to the white 

 man, and any one might have safely prophesied that a 

 city Vv'ould rise here. The ground slopes gradually 

 down to the lake, the bay forms an ideal harbor, and 

 looking off upon the boats and water, the eye resta 

 upon a scene picturesque and striking. 



My attention was called to Johnson's Island, whicb 



