"The said people live in almost a community of goods, rather of the style of the Brazilians, and are wholly clothed with skin of wild beasts, and poorly enough. In winter they are shod with stockings and shoes, and in summer they go barefoot. They keep the order of marriage, save that they take two or three wives, and after the husband is dead the wives never remarry, but wear mourning for the said dead all their lives, and besmear their faces with coal-dust and with grease as thick as the thickness of a knife; and by that one knows that they are widows. They have another custom very bad for their girls; for after they are of age to marry they are all put into a common house, abandoned to everybody who desires them until they have found their match. And all this we have seen by experience, for we have seen the houses as full of the said girls as is a school of boys in France. And, moreover, gaming according to their manner is held in the said houses, where they stake all that they have, even to the covering of their nature. They do not any great work, and with little pieces of wood about the size of a half-sword cultivate their land whereon they raise their corn, which they call Zis, the which is as big as peas, of the same grain in growth as in Brazil. Likewise they have a great quantity of great melons, cucumbers, and pumpkins, peas and beans of all colours, not of the kind of ours. They have also an herb of which during the summer they make a great store for the winter, the which they greatly esteem, and the men only use it in the manner following: They have it dried in the sun and carry it about their necks in a little beast's skin in place of a bag, with a horn of stone or wood; then by and by they make powder of the said herb and put it in one of the ends of the said horn, then put a coal fire thereon and suck at the other end so long that they fill their bodies with smoke; insomuch that it comes out by the mouth and nostrils as by a chimney funnel; and they say that it keeps them healthy and warm, and they never go without having their said things. We have tried the said smoke, which, after being put into our mouths, seemed to be powder of pepper put therein, it was so hot. The women of the said country work beyond comparison more than the men, as well in fishing, of which they make a great business, as in tilling and other things; and men, women and children alike are more hardened to the cold than beasts, for with the greatest cold that we may have seen, the which was extreme and bitter, they came over the ice and snow every day to our ships, the most part of them almost entirely naked, which is an incredible thing to one who has not seen it. They take during the said ice and snow a great quantity of wild beasts, as deer, stags, and bears, of which they brought us but very little, because they were stingy of their victuals. They eat their flesh wholly raw, after having been dried by the smoke, and likewise their fish. By what we have seen and been able to learn of this said people it seems to me that they might be easy to tame in such fashion as one might desire. God by his divine compassion bestow upon them his regard. Amen."
NOTE III—CANADA
Canada was limited by Cartier to the region between the Isle of Bacchus (Isle d'Orleans) and Hochelaga. There can be no doubt that the word Canada is derived from Cannata or Kannata, which in Iroquois signifies a collection of dwellings, in other words a settlement, and it is probable that when the Indians were asked by the French the name of their country, they replied pointing to their dwellings, "Cannata," which their interrogators applied in a broader sense than was intended.
NOTE IV—GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF MOUNT ROYAL
The following geological study of Mount Royal prepared by Dean F. D. Adams of McGill University for the Geological Survey Department of the Federal Government cannot fail to be of interest to students of Montreal:
"In the Province of Quebec, between the enormous expanse of the Laurentian highlands to the northwest, constituting the 'Canadian Shield,' and the disturbed and folded tract of country which marks the Appalachian uplift, there is a great plain underlain by nearly horizontal rocks of lower Palæozoic age. This plain, while really showing slight differences of level from place to place, seems to the casual observer perfectly flat. Its surface is mantled with a fertile soil consisting of drift redistributed upon its surface by the sea, which covered it at the close of the Glacial times. The uniform expanse of this plain, however, is broken by several isolated hills composed of igneous rocks, which rise abruptly from it and which constitute very striking features of the landscape.
"From the top of Mount Royal the other hills referred to can all be seen rising from the plain to the east; while to the north the plain stretches away unbroken to the foot of the Laurentian plateau.
"The hills under consideration, while by no means 'mere hummocks,' being situated in such a country of low relief, seem to be higher than they really are and are always referred to locally as 'mountains.'
"These mountains, whose positions are shown on the accompanying map, are eight in number, their names and their height above sea level being as follows: