78 FOSSIL MEN. 



amounted to several hundreds, though it is not 

 improbable that the Hochelagans, like some other, 

 Canadian tribes, periodically disinterred their dead, 

 and removed their bones to a common tribal ossuary. 

 Lastly, making every allowance for the nature of the 

 soil, the condition of the skeletons would seem to re- 

 quire an interment of at least three centuries. For all 

 these reasons, I can entertain little doubt that the 

 site referred to is actually that of the Hochelaga of 

 Cartier. 



The only objects indicating intercourse with Euro- 

 peans which I have yet found, are an iron nail 

 without the head, and with the point rounded so as 

 to form a sort of bodkin, a piece of iron shaped into 

 a rude knife or chisel, a small piece of sheet brass 

 about half an inch long by a quarter wide, and appa- 

 rently cut roughly from a larger piece. These were, 

 I think, mixed among the debris from one of the 

 kitchens. 



I quote here from a notice published in 1861, when 

 the details were fresh in my memory, a few additional 

 facts bearing upon the above points. " In a limited 

 area, not exceeding two imperial acres, twenty skele- 

 tons have been disinterred within twelve months, and 

 the workmen state that many parts of the ground 

 excavated in former years were even more rich in such 

 remains. Hundreds of old fireplaces and indications 

 of at least ten or twelve huts or lodges, have also been 

 found, and in a few instances these occur over the 

 burial-places, as if one generation had built its huts 



