Title:  A New Hochelagan Burying-ground Discovered at Westmount on the Western Spur of Mount Royal, Montreal, July-September, 1898

Author:  W. D. Lighthall

Release Date:  January 4, 2005 [eBook #14590]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ISO-646-us (us-ASCII)

***Start of the project gutenberg EBOOK A new Hochelagan burying-ground discovered at Westmount on the western Spur of Mount Royal, Montreal, July-September, 1898***

E-text prepared by Wallace McLean, William Flis, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team from images provided by Our Roots/Nos Racines (http://www.ourroots.ca/)

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A NEW HOCHELAGAN BURYING-GROUND DISCOVERED AT WESTMOUNT ON THE WESTERN SPUR OF MOUNT ROYAL, MONTREAL, JULY-SEPTEMBER 1898

Notes by

W. D. Lighthall, M.A., F.R.S.L.

Privately printed for the writer by
Alphonse Pelletier
Printer to the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal

1898

The above title is provisional as respects the term “Hochelagan.”  All those who are interested in the Indians of old Hochelaga, or in the Mohawks with whom they seem to have had a close and not yet fully ascertained race relationship, will be pleased to learn of the discovery of a prehistoric burying-ground which is probably one of their race, the only one heretofore known having been on the borders of their town itself, about upper Metcalfe street, Montreal.  The new one is on the upper level (not the top) of Westmount, which is the south-western prolongation of Mount Royal, and the four or five graves thus far found are scattered at considerable intervals over an an area of about 600 by 300 yards, nearly bounded by Argyle, Montrose and Aberdeen Avenues and the Boulevard, three of the graves being a little outside of these limits.  A number of years ago a skeleton was discovered, near the surface, on the cutting of Argyle Avenue on about a westerly line from the residence of Mr. Earle.  As the remains were rumored to be possibly Indian, Mr. Earle secured the skull, which had been used as a football by boys, some of the teeth, which had originally been complete in number, being thus lost.  This head is identical in form with those last found.  Roots of grass interlaced in it show the lightness of the covering.  On another occasion many years ago, a skeleton was found, also lightly buried, and with the knees drawn up, just east of the residence of Mr. John Macfarlane on Montrose Avenue, during the digging of a flower-bed.  It