AN OLD STORY OF THE NEW WORLD. 25 



excited the astonishment of the French seaman, and 

 which he correctly characterises as living between the 

 sea and the fresh water of the St. Lawrence, and as 

 peculiar to the estuary of that river. He does not 

 mention how the natives captured this formidable 

 creature, often twenty feet in length ; but the modern 

 Indians, like the Esquimaux, use a harpoon with a 

 cord and float. We may imagine that the means in 

 Carrier's time were the same, only that the iron of the 

 modern harpoon would be represented by a triangular 

 stone point, or a many-barbed head of bone.* 



The Canada of Carrier's time began at the bottom 

 of the Isle of Orleans, not far below Quebec, and 

 extended thence half-way to Montreal. It was the 

 native name of a district bounded by Saguenay on 

 the east and Hochelaga on the west, and of which 

 Stadacona, on the site of the present Quebec, was the 

 capital. The name Quebec, meaning a strait, was 

 then applied to the narrow part of the river, at the 

 foot of Cape Diamond. Opposite the Island of Orleans, 



* The Beluga catodon, white whale or white porpoise of the 

 St. Lawrence, still exists, though less abundant than formerly. 

 It is strictly an estuarine animal, found only in the St. Lawrence 

 and in parts of Davis' Straits. Its bones, found in the post- 

 pliocene Leda clay of the St. Lawrence, show that it existed 

 in the glacial period, when it must have had a far wider range 

 than at present, over portions of North America now land, but 

 then submerged. Its bones have been found in the vicinity 

 of Lake Champlain and near Brockville on the St. Lawrence. 

 Though the species found in the post-pliocene has been named 

 Beluga Vermontana, a comparison with the recent animal shows 

 that it is the same species. 



