2 
0. E. Prud’homme, formerly artist of the Anthropological Division, 
National Museum of Canada. Those of burials are from photographs by 
the author. The maps were drawn by A. Joanes of the Draughting 
Division, Geological Survey, Canada. Except where otherwise stated all 
illustrations are about one-third natural size. 
THE SITE 
The Roebuck site, as shown on Map 1599, covers about 8 acres, being 
about 20 rods wide north and south, by about 64 rods long, east and west. 
It is on lend owned by Messrs. James Kelso, Nathaniel White, and J. Henry, 
and probably extended on to that of Mr. George Dunbar on the north side 
of the road, as suggested by specimens found there. 
The main site occupies the more or less flat top of a long sandhill, high 
and dry for habitation, surrounded on the north, east, and south by a 
black alder swamp. The south side of the hill is a steep bank, rising about 
20 feet above the level of the swamp. This bank gradually becomes less 
steep to the southeast, east, and northeast, there rising only to about 15 feet. 
On the north the slope is still more gradual, Some of the older residents 
claimed that the hill had been higher than it is at the present day. Con- 
tinual ploughing and the effect of the wind on the loose sand may have 
reduced its height since it was first ploughed seme time before 1845. The 
soil consists largely of a light yellow sand, in some places with little or 
no humus. After cultivation the loose sand is easily shifted by winds; in 
fact, along the east side of the line fence, the Kelso pasture is thickly 
covered with sand blown from Mr, White's field, which is under cultivation 
most of the time. 
The site was indicated by scattered surface evidences of habitation 
such as spots of blackened soil with heat-cracked stones, fragments of stone 
mortars, weathered potsherds, and bleached freshwater clam shells. 
Guest, who visited the site in 1854, seems to have believed that the 
sand-hill on which the site is located was an artificial mound. 
AGE OF THE SITE 
The age of the site is unknown and there is no positive evidence point- 
ing to its great antiquity, but that it was probably inhabited and 
deserted by the Indians before the arrival of the first white explorers in 
this part of Canada is suggested by the absence of iron arrow-points, iron 
axes, brass kettles, and other articles that show evidence of contact with 
whites. A single blue glass bead was found less than 9 inches deep in the 
spring on the south side of the site, but this, as mentioned under “beads,” 
was probably lost recently. It would seem that had the site been inhabited 
even for a year or two after the Indians were able to secure glass beads, 
iron axes, and other trade articles from the whites farther down the St. 
Lawrence, some of this material must have penetrated through the channels 
of trade as far as this site. Had the people obtained even a little of it, we 
might expect to find it represented among the finds, when we consider the 
