166 OVER ON THE ISLAND

sounded strangely familiar. I brought out a copy of Gesner’s Geological Report and read from it:

By the encroachment of the sea on the south side of the harbour a number of Indian skeletons have been exposed and washed from the bank. These skeletons were lying together in different positions, as if the bodies had been thrown into a common pit, the top of which was only one foot beneath the soil. From an examination made at the spot, some of the bones were found to be of great size; and in general, they all exceeded in their dimensions those of the race in their present state. The site of this pit on the extremity of a small point of land, supports the opinion that the savages had been surprised and cut OH, or killed in battle, and as no relics of warlike instruments were found at the place except those of the aborigines, it is probable that the event took place before the advent of the Europeans. From an old tradition of the affair among the Indians, the bay has been called “Savage Harbour.”

“That’s it.”

The story-teller looked relieved at this unexpected co-operation. He backed his boat out again, and was gone. We wandered on around the quiet little harbour watching the boats, and chatting with the fishermen. What a quiet, peaceful life there seems to be in those small fishing communities! They are so different and so alike, too—different in their setting, their arrangement; but alike in their cargoes and inhabitants.

Not far from Savage Harbour is Mount Stewart. And near Mount Stewart is La Grande Source, around which the vivacious Marie and her mother lived. It was then a spring with a great amount of clear water which formed a brook leading to the river. There the superstitious fishermen saw Madame Grandville receive