The French River Country 
Summer Vacations Passed There—Bits of its History 
By J. M. NORRIS 
(Concluded from page 690.) 
spent a night in June, 1904, in terrible tortur 
from mosquitoes, as there were no doors nr 
windows to protect us, these having bee 
broken or destroyed. 
As we passed Wigwam Point two Indians i 
a birch canoe landed on this famous campin 
ground of the Hurons. This has long been 
favorite Indian resort. Arrowheads, tom; 
hawks, skinning stones and bits of pottery s-ti 
reward a diligent searcher. As we entere 
what seemed a narrow bay, the Captain aij 
nounced the beginning of the west arm of Lai 
Nipissing. This region is a very labyrinth c 
islands, channels, projecting points and lonj 
narrow bays, some of which are four milt 
deep. As we passed a small island surrounde 
by what seemed to be a stone fence, the Cap 
tain called us all to the north side of the bo; 
to see what he was pleased to call the site 0 
one of the battles between the Hurons and th 
Iroquois. The Indians at Bocage have a deef 
seated conviction that this is the battlefiel 
where the Hurons won their only victory ovc 
the Iroquois. People at North Bay told m 
of this Huron victory over in the west arm c 
Lake Nipissing. I have made a careful stud 
of Parkman, Shea, the Jesuit Relations, an 
other histories, and have been unable to verif 
this story. Indians rarely used stones as 
defense, preferring logs and brush. 
This is a region of rare charm; the island 
and shores are well wooded with splendid pin 
and hemlock. The channel here narrows dow 
to a gorge, and then widens out into a lak> 
The landscape looks like a fit abode for It 
dians and trappers, having that wild, romanti 
character that lends such a charm to th 
region. Rather high hills are seen to the sout 
of the channel. The brown Laurentian rock 
here prevail, and from their surfaces nearl 
all soil was shaved off during the glacial perio<| 
On account of the scarcity of room on th 
boat it was decided that we have our dinne 
at Monettville, but since we did not arrivj 
until 2 P. M., we possessed such keen appej 
tites as are rarely found even in these latitude 
where ozone gives keen zest for plain fan 
Boards were quickly laid upon sled boxes t 
serve as tables, and the ladies spread before u| 
such a tempting dinner as the genius of bri'j 
On Aug. 8 we took the Kowalsky gasoline 
launch and towed all hands down to the Big 
Chaudiere at Okickendawt Island, where we 
viewed the wonderful falls and rapids of this 
great river. We had dinner on the portage 
over which Champlain, Marquette, Jean Nico- 
let and others had gone. The meaning of 
Chaudiere is “pots,” for the rushing water 
turns a boulder round and round until a hole is 
worn in the granite rock. A change of chan¬ 
nel brings it well ashore. In these holes the 
Indians ground their corn to make sagamite. 
The word Okickendawt, in the language of 
the Hurons, the home of the pots. 
We searched for blueberries, but found none. 
Two years before we had found them in great 
abundance, but now they were dried up on the 
bushes. The day we visited the river men 
were running logs down. After lunch we hit 
a rather poorly marked trail leading to our 
right going down, that brought us to the lower 
group of falls. Here, two years ago we had 
found splendid angling. A gentleman from 
Newport, Ky., named Wright, his two sons, 
Coen and myself found some of the rarest 
sport. We caught in an hour and a half all 
that young Dorkiis, the guide, could carry 
away. He had brought along a two-bushel 
sack, and was taking it home well filled. 
Now all was changed; thousands of pine 
logs were coming down over the falls. The 
little bay where we had fished was full of logs 
that were chafing against the bare rocks. Cov¬ 
ered with foam, they seemed angry at being 
pent up in this narrow eddy. We met a group 
of river drivers who were running the logs 
over the falls. These brawny, handsome Can¬ 
adians were eating their lunch, which consisted 
largely of cookies and pies. Seeing that it 
was about 3 P. M., I asked, “How often do 
you fellows eat?” “Five times a day,” replied 
one, “and the stingy lumber company would 
not give us another bite if we were starving 
for it.” 
On our way home we landed at Louis 
Revier’s and at Restoul’s to buy supplies. 
These Indians have fine farms, good gardens, 
and keep their homes neat and clean. Mr. 
Coen and I secured two sets of deer antlers. 
The evening of the next day we fished back 
in Pickerel Channel, with splendid results. 
We were baiting with green frogs, and the 
bait must have been a very alluring one, as 
we soon caught all the fish we could use. 
Though the sport was fine, we could not see 
our way to kill more fish than were needed for 
our supply. 
That evening the Jacobs, the Coens, the Ros- 
selles and my family spent very pleasantly at 
Rollings’ cottage. From the porch there we 
saw the aurora borealis, pretty in any latitude, 
but indescribably so in northern ones. 
We had heard much of the delights of the 
West Arm, and all were anxious to make this 
delightful journey. Dr. Bragdon, Harry Davis, 
and Col. A. R. Hunt arranged with Charles 
Brittain, captain of the steamer Elgin Lewis 
to take the entire party around the lake. As 
we passed out of the Narrows we had a fine 
view of the eagle’s nest, which looked large as 
a haycock through Colonel Hunt’s field glass. 
Mrs. Harry Davis was very anxious to see the 
bird that we had selected as our national em¬ 
blem, a desire that was quickly gratified. A 
large bald eagle was seen in swift pursuit of a 
gull. Its head, neck and shoulders were of 
immaculate whiteness, that scintillated in the 
morning sun like burnished silver. At noon 
we passed the old slab house on Sandy Island 
in which Dr. Bragdon, Dayne, Griffith and I 
THE ELGIN L. LEWIS AND PARTY AT MONETTVILLE, IN 
THE WEST ARM OF LAKE NIPISSING. 
