looks like a maze. You remember the famous old maze which when a man once got inside he would go around for hours and hours, coming back to the same place time and again, but he could not get out, until finally he got hold of a golden clue -a golden thread, which he would follow and so get out.

Do you know that many of our islands are just like that, only instead of a golden thread you have to rely upon the captain of the vessel to bring you back. You would get lost yourself. I will guarantee to take any one of you into the group of islands, and in fifteen minutes you will be so much iost that you will not know which way home is, or how you got in, or anything about it, any more than you are there. There are many gentlemen now in the room who can bear me out in this. I am speaking from experience, for I have been lost myself and I ought to know.

This region is divided into groups, so that the dweller here knows pretty well how they are situated.

Directly in front of Alexandria Bay is what is known as the "Central" or "Bay" group, and a very beautiful group it is indeed.

Just below us is what is called the "Boundary" or "Friendly" group, because of its proximity to the line between this country and Europe.

Farther up is the "Admiralty" group, in front of Gananoque. There are over a hundred islands in that group, and you can go in and out among them, if you have a vessel of the right size. Of course the larger steamers cannot penetrate the smaller channels.

Nevertheless, they are all beautiful, and you should see them by moonlight. If you have seen them by daylight the effect. when you see the same islands by the light of the moon is simply bewildering. If you have not seen them by daylight the effect of the searchlight excursion is very apt to mislead

you.

Then, again, we have traces right along the St. Lawrence here of Indian occupation. As you probably know, the Algonquins occupied all this country to the north of us. The border line was south, and it was here that those great nations fought

it out. Those shores of ours have been fairly drenched with Indian blood. The savage tribes fought here for ages, almost. There are evidences of Indian occupation in the shape of paintings, or pictures-I will not say that they exist now, but they were about here, and it is only a few years since there were pictures painted by Indian artists at different places along the shores here. Each one of those paintings had a history, some of them we have been able to learn, and for centuries the Indian artists came along and retouched those paintings as the winds and storms washed them away.

Just below the city of Brockville, on a high granite bluff is to be found all that remains of one of those paintings, at least it was there last summer, and could be dimly seen if you took a skiff and went close in to it. I presume that it is entirely obliterated now.

That painting represented a canoe full of Indians, and with them two white men, whom they were pitching into the water. This picture was renewed from time to time by the Indian artists, until within the last ten years; since then it has been neglected. I suppose the artists are dead-(you could kill anyone who made such a painting anyway).

The story attached to this picture was that when de Frontenac was having trouble with the English in this country (and they were squabbling as a general thing in this country then) he came up the St. Lawrence and captured two English offices Oswego, that is where the old time fort was away back I don't know how long ago. However, he sent those two officers, down with an Indian escort, to Montreal. They got down all very well as far as Brockville, and then there came on a terrible storm. Well, the Indians were determined upon appeasing the Great Spirit, and so they pitched the white men into the river, in order to lighten the canoe.

It seems that the action did not do them any good, anyway it did not appease the Great Spirit worth a cent, and their consciences began to trouble them (it would appear that those Indians had consciences, which is generally an unusual thing for an Indian to possess. The ordinary redskin has none). They kind of felt sorry for what they had done, particularly

as it did not seem to appease the Great Spirit. The storm grew worse and worse, and finally, after they had got down to the big bluff just below Brockville, the canoe went under, and they were drowned, with the men singing their death song amid the howling of the storm. And so the artist pictured it.

I don't believe for a minute that even if they had saved those officers that they would have taken them down to Montreal. I don't take any stock in the redskin anyhow on general principles. I have had too much to do with him out on the plains many many years ago, and I don't love the Indian worth a cent.

What they would have done with those men would be to burn them at the stake, and amuse the women and children with the fun they were having. That is my opinion of the redskin, and I am sure that is what would have happened.

Over across the river here just a little above us, there used to be a picture of an Indian who seemed to be fishing from a canoe, and some animal (it might have been a panther, or it might have been a hog for all I can tell) jumped into the canoe and ate the Indian. This event was commemorated for years and years, in fact it is only about ten years ago since it was retouched for the last time.

On another of the islands, down below here, there was a picture of a tremendous war canoe containing thirty or forty Indians. I suppose there was a story attached to it, but I don't know what it was, and I never met anybody who could telbrue!

I will now give you a little bit of history. This river was named in 1583 by Jacques Cartier, or rather, the mouth of the river, the Gulf of St. Lawrence was named after Jacques' patron saint, and as Jacques came up along the river with. his fleet the name followed him, till it got to be the name of the whole thing.

The original Indian name of this river was "Kataraqui," and for a wide extent of country on either side, extending to the lakes of Central New York, and to Jefferson and Lewis counties, to the Adirondacks, and away back to Gananoque and Kingston, and over that North country it was all called Kataraqui. There is an old village back of Kingston which bears.

the name yet. This was the headquarters of the Indians long ago.

"Kataraqui" means "land of many lakes," and that is why the region and the river were called Kataraqui.

During the Revolutionary War, speaking of historical matters, this was an active place. Up here just this side of Cape Vincent a fort was built on what is now called Carlton Island. This fort was erected by the British in 1778. Strong garrisons were kept there till 1783, and then the thing went down. That was in Revolutionary times.

This was the great pathway, or military road, from Quebec and Montreal to reach the western portions of the country. For many years, from 1562 or 1563 onward, there was a long procession of Jesuit fathers went up this river in their canoes, with Indian guides. Those men went clear up into the Northwest, and among those men were some of the grandest men that ever lived on the face of the earth, men who came from the great gardens of Paris, came from their friends, and from their monasteries, and from their comforts, and went out into the wilds to Christianize the savages. They did not come for any other purpose. Naturally they would have liked to annex all this country to the French crown, there is no doubt about that, and I do not blame them for it in any manner whatever. But, the main idea of those men was to convert the savages to Christianity.

They passed up this St. Lawrence River in one stream, year after year. They devoted their lives to it, they lost their lives by it. They were tomahawked. They were burnt at the stake. They were tortured and butchered by the Indians, but still they persisted.

Now, I am not particularly attached to any church whatever, and I do not care what church a man may belong to so long as he believes that his work is right, that his way is right and he carries out his belief in his life, but I feel that the footsteps that those men left along the shores of the St. Lawrence River are on holy ground.

It makes no difference to what denomination we may belong, we will have to admit that there was only one thing that took

those men up that river, and we will have to admit that those men opened up that country. They reached the Great Northwest, they went down the "Father of Waters" to its mouth and opened up an empire; and, after they had done that the sons of the old Puritans went out and took possession of it— the sons of those men who hated Protestantism and despised Jesuitism. Those men went out and took possession of it after the Jesuits had opened it up. This is an undeniable fact. It is in the march of human events, and had to be.

But we owe those Jesuit fathers a great deal for what they have done in this country.

During the war of 1812 there were several lively little "melces" just below this pretty little village.

There were some British gunboats going up the river, and some of the Yankees got out and went across to the Canadian shore at Rockport and took them in, and went up the river with them and got rid of them there. Some of their friends came after them, but could not get them.

There was another nice little fight took place up at Clayton, and we had a nice little scrap with three British iron vessels, over in the Narrows, just above the Thousand Island Park.

Down below, again, in the group of islands we had one or two nice squabbles. It was a pretty lively place, I gather. I was not here at the time, so I don't know for certain.

But there was one shameful affair, I am sorry to say. Wilkinson with his army marched down those shores and crossed over to Chrysler's Farm, and there got beautifully licked. Wilkinson was cashiered for drunkenness and dismissed the service, and it was a good thing for him, too. Served him right.

I cannot dwell on those things any longer. There are hundreds of other things that I could say to you about those times, but the guide books that you can get will give you all the information that you want, and which I have not time to give

you now.

Thirty-three years ago there was hardly a cottage on the islands. I think it is about forty years ago since the first shanty was built on the Canadian Islands. At that time there was