Beaver, commonly
called Sheep Island, from some person having pastured a few sheep upon
it some few years ago. I have taken the liberty of preserving the name,
to which it bears an obvious resemblance; the nose of the Beaver lies
towards the west, the tail to the east. This island is nearly opposite
to Gore's Landing, and forms a pleasing object from the windows and
verandah of Claverton, the house of my esteemed friend, William Falkner,
Esq., the Patriarch of the Plains, as he has often been termed; one of
the only residents on the Rice Lake plains for many years; one of the
few gentlemen who had taste enough to be charmed with this lovely tract
of country, and to appreciate its agricultural resources, which, of
late, have been so fully developed.]_ from its resemblance in shape to
that animal. A fine, high, oval island beyond this they named Black
Island, _[FN: Black Island, the sixth from the head of the lake; an
oval island, remarkable for its evergreens.]_ from its dark evergreens;
the next was that which seemed most to excite the interest of their
Indian guide, although but a small stony island, scantily clothed
with trees, lower down the lake. This place she called Spooke Island,
_[FN: Appendix H.]_ which means in the Indian tongue, a place for
the dead; it is sometimes called Spirit Island, and here, in times past,
used the Indian people to bury their dead. The island is now often the
resort of parties of pleasure, who, from its being grassy and open, find
it more available than those which are densely wooded. The young Mohawk
regarded it with feelings of superstitious awe, and would not suffer
Hector to land the canoe on its rocky shores.

"It is a place of spirits," she said; "the ghosts of my fathers will be
angry if we go there." Even her young companions felt that, they were
upon sacred ground, and gazed with silent reverence upon the burial
isle.

Strongly imbued with a love of the marvellous, which they had derived
from their Highland origin, Indiana's respect for the spirits of her
ancestors was regarded as most natural, and in silence, as if fearing to
disturb the solemnity of the spot, they resumed their paddles, and after
awhile reached the mouth of the river Otonabee, which was divided into
two separate channels by a long, low point of swampy land covered with
stunted, mossy bushes and trees, rushes, driftwood, and aquatic plants.
Indiana told them this river flowed from the north, and that it was m