LOST ARTS OP PRIMITIVE RACES. 163 



the remnants of this people, the Red Indians, they 

 pursued into Newfoundland, crossing the stormy sea 

 which separates this island from Cape Breton, in their 

 bark canoes. As the opposite coast could rarely be 

 seen, they were in the habit of kindling large fires 

 upon the northern point of Cape Breton which they 

 called Sakpeediah, the Smoky Cape, and steering from 

 these in the direction of Newfoundland. Such adven- 

 tures, though perhaps not comparable with the voyages 

 of the islanders of the Pacific, show us what primitive 

 man can do, and how rapidly he may overspread the 

 earth.* The present condition of the Micmacs, re- 

 duced to pauperism and destitute of any spirit of pro- 

 gress or adventure, tells how readily the life and spirit 

 of rude peoples can be crushed out by oppression. 



The learned archaeologist, Eau, has, in a memoir on 

 Ancient Aboriginal Trade, f collected a great number 

 of interesting facts showing the remarkable extent to 

 which in pre-historic times the productions of North 

 America had been utilized and conveyed from place to 

 place. He shows that the produce of the copper mines 

 of Lake Superior had been dispersed over the whole 

 continent to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic 

 coast. In like manner, the celebrated red pipestone 



* The Micmacs seem also to have a tradition of the North- 

 men who visited their coasts in the tenth century, in a people 

 whom they call Chenooks, who are said to have had hearts of 

 ice, a terrible war-whoop, to be of immense strength, to sail in 

 canoes of stone, to possess magical powers, and to use weapons 

 of brass. Eand has preserved this tradition. 



t " Report of Smithsonian Institution, 1872." 



