Gatschet.] 4:0o [June 19, 



the bone. The hxtter is oval and convex, and its thin edge is divided by- 

 fine grooves more closely placed than in the species described by Fritsch, 

 which terminate in fissures separating delicate teeth. See Fauna der Gas- 

 kohle und der Kalksteine der Permformation Boehmens, p. 122, PI. 20. 



Similar bodies were found by myself in the fresh-water beds of the 

 Laramie formation of Montana, and described under the name of Aroius 

 hierogylphicus. (Bulletin U. S. Geol. Survey Terrs., F. V. Hayden, iii, 

 1877, p. 574.) The shaft of this body is not curved, and the body is flat- 

 tened. As specimens of the batrachian genus Scapherpeton are abundant 

 in this formation and locality, it is not unlikely that these comb-like bones 

 are their claspers. 



THE BEOTHUK INDIANS. 



By Albert S. Gatschet. 



First Article. 



{Read before the American Philosophical Society, June 19, 1SS5.) 



The Beothuk or Red Indians are the aboriginal people of the isle of 

 Newfoundland, and their presence there is attested as early as the six- 

 teenth century. Nevertheless, we cannot consider them as the autoch- 

 thons of that extensive country, for insular populations must always have 

 originated in some mainland or continent. 



HISTORIC NOTES. 



Newfoundland was discovered by Sebastian Cabot, on his great northern 

 cruise in 1497, and probably visited also by Gasparo de Cortereal (1500). 

 Although the Indians were noi then identified as Beothuks, Cabot noticed 

 that they were painted icith red ochre and dressed in skins. 



In 1527, Oliver Dawbeny saw from his ship Minion the inhabitants of 

 Newfoundland passing in a boat ; they fled as soon as Ihej perceived that 

 a ship-boat set out to follow them. At Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, savages 

 came aboard his ship ; they called the harbor there Cibo, and the name 

 of their chief was Itarey.* 



"When Jacques Cartier first reached Newfoundland in 1534, he landed 

 on May 10 at Cape Bonavista, in the south-eastern part of the island. He 

 describes the Indians he saw as " of good size, wearing their hair in a 

 bunch on the top of their heads and adorned with feathers." A word of 

 the native language, adhotJiues, is used by him to designate a fish of a 

 rather strange appearance, wiiite of color, with a rabbit-shaped head.f 



*Hakluyt's Voyages, ed. London, 1810; iii, pp. 168, 169, 215. 



tPiscisunusa Quarlerio memoratur, magnitudine orcse, colore 



plane caudido, capite leporino, barbari sua lingua Adholhues appellabant, 

 etc. Joan, de Laet, Novus Orbis, JAbr. ii, p. 42 (Lugd. Bat., 1633.) 



The Indians of " Terra Nova" of the early period are also described in Barcla, 

 Eusayo, pg. 159. 



