1909] The Ottawa Naturalist. 95 



of the same school of ceramic art. The ash-bed was large and 

 deep and Dr. Ami is of the opinion that it had been used as a 

 fire-place for a considerable length of time. There is no doubt 

 that Dr. Ami's discovery is of the highest importance in establish- 

 ing proofs of Huron occupation of the Ottawa valley. 



There are, also, in the Museum, two perfect specimens of 

 Indian pottery from lot 20, range 11, Eardley township, Wright 

 Co. , Que. They were procured from James Lusk, who discovered 

 them on his farm, where they had been washed out of the banks 

 of a small creek during a freshet. They are suberb examples 

 of aboriginal art, and it is difficult to understand how they 

 could have been brought to such symmetrical proportions without 

 the use of a lathe. Compared with similar vessels figured in the 

 Ontario Archaeological Reports, it seems impossible to doubt 

 that the}^ are of Huron origin. These vessels are similar in 

 pattern and have been fabricated from the same clayey com- 

 position, with the same band, decorated with characteristic 

 incised lines, about the top, and a wave-like edge on the summit 

 of the rim, as are found in some of the Huron forms. As to 

 whether the spot where this pottery was found is an ancient 

 village site, will be an interesting subject for future investigation. 



Let us now consider another phase of the question of Huron 

 occupation, that seems to be more conclusive even than the 

 discovery of ash-beds or pottery, the evidences of ossuarial 

 burial. The graves of a nation are indexes of its intellectual 

 development, from the rude cairn of the wandering savage to 

 the Taj Mahal of the imperial ruler. Could we have mingled in 

 the activities of palaeocosmic man, and witnessed the rite of 

 sepulture by which the Old Man of Cro-Magnon was laid to rest 

 in his cave-sepulchre on the Vez^re, in the Dordogne Valley, then, 

 the last rites about the grave of that post-glacial patriarch might 

 have yielded us a store of knowledge that would have been in- 

 valuable to us in studying the savage culture of ancient Europe, 

 such as the rude efforts of primitive man to interpret natural 

 phenomena or to recognize in the variant manifestations of 

 natural forces the evidences of divine anger or approbation. So, 

 also, if we could have witnessed the burial rites of the Huron 

 nation, in what was called the Feast of the Dead, they would 

 have proved most instructive. They might have cleared up 

 much that is obscure in regard to the ultimate destiny and re- 

 lationship of the two souls, the one that took flight to the land of 

 spirits, at the hour of death, and the other that awaited the 

 final interment, before taking its departure. They might ha\-e 

 given us an insight into the philosophy of Indian burials, which 

 would have explained the presence or absence of warlike or 

 domestic implements in Huron ossuaries. But, fortunately for 



