62 NAERATIVE OF THE EXPEDITIOISr. 



way of the Skull Rock, are spread extensive beds of finely com- 

 minuted calcareous gravel, the particles of which often not ex- 

 ceeding the size of a buck-shot, which makes one of the most 

 solid and compact natural macadamized roads of which it is 

 possible to conceive. Carriage wheels on it run as smoothly, 

 but far more solid, than they could over a plank floor. This 

 formation appears to be the diluvial residuum or ultimate wash, 

 which arranged itself agreeably to the laws of its own gravitation, 

 on the recession of the watery element, to which its comminution 

 is clearly due. It would be worth transportation, in boxes, for 

 gravelling ornamental garden-walks. The soil of the island is 

 highly charged with the calcareous element, and, however barren 

 in appearance, is favorable to vegetation. Potatoes have been 

 known to be raised in pure beds of small limestone pebbles, 

 where the seed potatoes had been merely covered in a slight way, 

 to shield them from the sun, until they had taken root. 



The historical reminiscences connected with this island are of 

 an interesting character. It appears from concurrent testimony ^ 

 that the old town on the peninsula was settled about 1671,* which 

 was seven years before the building of Fort Niagara. In that 

 year. Father Marquette, a French missionary, prevailed on a party 

 of Hurons to locate themselves at that spot, and it was therefore 

 the first point of settlement made northwest of Fort Frontenac, on 

 Lake Ontario. It was probably first garrisoned by La Salle, in 

 1678, and continued to be the seat of the fur trade, and in many 

 respects, the metropolis of the extreme northwest, during the 

 whole period of French domination in the Canadas. After the 

 fall of Quebec, in 1759, it passed by treaty to the British govern- 

 ment, but much against the wishes of the Indian tribes, who 

 retained a strong partiality for their early friends, the French. 

 Pontiac arose at this time, to dispute the English authority in the 

 northwest, and with confederates projected a series of bold 

 attacks upon the forts extending from the Ohio to this post. 

 Most of these were successful, but he was defeated at Detroit, 

 where he commanded in person, after a series of extraordinary 



* Neither Fort Niagara uor Fort Ponchartrain (at the present site of Detroit) were 

 then in existence. The foundation of the former was laid by La Salle, in 1678; the 

 latter had not been erected when La Hontan passed through the country, in 1688. — 

 Herriofs Travels throvgh Ca?iada, p. 19G. 



