1897-^ 'fRANSACYlONS. 55 



The memory of the Redman ! 



It lingers like a spell 



On many a storm-swept headland, 



In many a leafy dell ; 



Where TuskeCs thousand islets 



Like emeralds stud the deep ; 



Where Blomidon^ a sentry grim, 



His endless watch doth keep. 



It dwells round Catalone's blue lake 



Mid leafy forests hid : 



Round fair Discouse and the rushing tide 



Of the turbid Pisiquid. 



And it lends, Chebogue^ a touching grace 



To thy softly flowing river 



As we sadly think of the gentle race 



That has passed away forever.* 



If we turn to the St. Lawrence River Provinces, we find 

 the traces of the Indian everywhere. I can only give a few 

 specimens and those in the briefest manner possible. 



Quebec is Indian for the narrow strait formed by Cape 

 Diamond jutting out into the river. 



Ontario is Indian for a " beautiful prospect of hills and 

 waters," or a corruption of the Indian word Onitariio^ mean- 

 ing " beautiful lake or waters," the appropriateness of which, 

 as of every place-name given by Indians is at once apparent; 

 and the same may be said of the early French names the en- 

 vironment being the same in both cases. It is a good deal 

 more than can be said of our English place-names although 

 we in Canada may fairly and proudly boast of having care- 

 fully abstained from imitating the barbarities of our cousins to 

 the south of us. When the traveller asked the French native 

 what the river in one of the Western States was called over 

 which he was ferrying the stranger, the answer was Bloody 

 Gulch," the Yankees call it ; with us it is La Bruneite—'' the 

 brown river.' " 



•Fortunately the poet's vaticinal fears have not been realized. In 

 the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince 

 Edward Island and British Columbia there has been, under the wise and 

 kindly care of the Government of Canada, acting through the Indian 

 Department, an increase of 11,005 in the Indian population of those pro- 

 vinces during the past 25 years ; an increase of nearly 24 per cent. 



