both forward on the history of the Iroquois and backwards on that of the
Huron stock. Interpreted as above, they afford a meagre but connected
story through a period hitherto lost in darkness, and perhaps a ray by
which further links may still be discovered through continued
archæological investigation.

NOTE. Like the numbers of the Hochelagan race, the question
how long they had been in the St. Lawrence valley must be
problematical. Sir William Dawson describes the site of Hochelaga
as indicating a residence of several generations. Their own
statements regarding the Huron country--that they "had never
been there", and that they gathered their knowledge of it
from the Ottawa Algonquins, permits some deductions. If the
Hochelagans--including their old men--had never been westward among
their kindred, it is plain that the migration must have taken place
more than the period of an old man's life previous--that is to say
more than say eighty years. If to this we add that the old men
appear not even to have derived such knowledge as they possessed
from their parents but from strangers, then the average full
life of aged parents should be added, or say sixty years more,
making a total of at least one hundred and forty years since the
immigration. Something might, it is true, be allowed for a sojourn
at intermediate points: and the scantiness of the remarks is also
to be remembered. But there remains to account for the considerable
population which had grown up in the land from apparently one
centre. If the original intruders were four hundred, for example,
then in doubling every twenty years, they would number 12,800
in a century. But this rate is higher than their state of
"Middle-Barbarism" is likely to have permitted and a hundred and
fifty years would seem to be as fast as they could be expected to