THE REMAINS OF CITIES OF THE STONE AGE. 71 



remained to indicate the site. The wooden walls 

 described by Cartier, and the bark houses, were no 

 doubt burned at the time of the final capture of the 

 town, which was probably taken by a sudden surprise 

 and assault, and its inhabitants butchered, with the 

 exception of those who could escape by flight, while all 

 portable articles of value would be taken away; and this 

 would especially apply to the implements and trinkets 

 left by the French, the report of whose vast value and 

 rarity may perhaps have stimulated the attack. 



In a dry sandy soil and in an extreme climate, 

 wooden structures rapidly decay, and such parts of 

 the buildings as the fire may have spared would soon 

 be mingled with the soil. No trace of them was seen 

 in the modern excavations except a few marks of the 

 spots where posts or stakes may have been sunk in 

 the earth. When the sod was removed, the position 

 of a dwelling was marked merely by its hearth, a 

 shallow excavation filled with ashes and calcined 

 stones, and having the soil for somo little distance 

 around reddened by heat. Around and in these 

 hearths might be found fragments of earthenware 

 pots and of tobacco pipes, broken stone implements 

 and chips of flint, bones of wild animals, charred 

 grains of corn, stones of the wild plum, with other 

 remains of vegetable food, and occasional bone bod- 

 kins and other implements. In depressed places, and 

 on the borders of the small brooks and creeks which 

 traversed or bounded the town, were accumulations of 

 kitchen-midden stuff, in some places two or three feet 



