THE BELLE RIVER COMMUNITY 13S

development of Isle St. Jean. Nothing, apparently, could damp his spirits or quench his ardour. Poor, persevering, meticulous de Roma!

To-day, only one long and three smaller depressions mark the site of Trois Riviéres, sponsored so ener- getically by de Roma, the director of the Company of the East. Three depressions—back of the tents. And, near by, the memorial tells briefly the story of the rise and fall of the unhappy settlement. Gone is the energetic Frenchman. Gone are his settlers, but his memory lives on in this one spot in the New World. At the unveiling of the cairn to the memory of this gallant Frenchman, the audience, with amusement, noted that all the speakers were Englishmen. The cairn commemorates de Roma’s work. It might, in addition, commemorate this alluring nook as the most enchanting corner on the Island. To this place, in 1763, an emissary was sent to end the destruction of the white pine lumber. “I found them destroying the finest groves of white pine that America could boast of,” stated the report. De Roma would never have allowed such depredations if he had been there. If he had been there . . . The words echo hollowly.

De Roma is gone.

We walked slowly back along the narrow little road from the Point. Our bicycles were still in the brush where we had hidden them, our possessions were still intact, and—what we had completely forgotten in our interest in the Point—our church spire still stood erect in the distance. Well, there was no excuse now. Our curiosity would have to be satisfied even if it did mean a few extra miles of pedalling. Back we went. The sky formed strange patterns behind the spire. The clouds grew billowy and white, then spread out