1870. J NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 453 



of McGiil College; collections made by the Numismatic and 

 Antiquarian Society ; a selection of very interesting objects kindly 

 lent to us by the Principal of Queen's College, Kingston ; a 

 number of antique implements from the Geological Survey ; plates 

 illustrating American antiquities from the library of the Seminary ; 

 and a variety of objects of interest exhibited by Mr. Barnstou, 

 Mr. Vennor, Mr. Whiteaves, Mr. Murphy, Prof. Bell, I\Ir. 

 Bagg, Mr. Mott, and other members of this Society. 



These objects are not only curious as illustrations of the rude 

 but often ingenious and tasteful arts of a primitive people, but 

 some of them are relics of tribes which have passed away. Amon"- 

 these none have greater interest than those which represent the 

 ancient Hochelaga of Cartier, the predecessor of our modern 

 Montreal, and of which many memorials have been found in the 

 excavations for the foundation of our modern city. In one case 

 you see specimens of the pottery of these people arranged in 

 accordance with its patterns, on which the Indian women of the 

 olden time bestowed so much skill and taste. In my own 

 collections I have from the ancient site fragments which represent 

 165 distinct vessels; and the patterns worked on these may be 

 arranged under the heads of the " corn-ear" pattern representinf*- 

 the rows of grain in the ear of corn ; the '^ basket-pattern ;" the 

 " ring" or bead pattern, usually combined with the last, and the 

 simpler "crimped" pattern. With this you may see a few 

 specimens of ancient British pottery, which, in material and style, 

 might have been formed by the same artists, and on which the 

 old potters made ornamental marks, by impressing the points of 

 their fingers on the clay, exactly in the manner of our old potters 

 of Montreal. 



You will also find, besides our collections of stone implements 

 of this country, others from the British Islands, and proving the 

 absolute identity of the primitive weapons and tools of these 

 widely-separated regions. Perhaps, however, nothing in the 

 curiosities exhibited this evening is more worthy of interest than 

 some of the smaller objects, especially the beads of wampum. 

 Beads are ancient and universal ornaments, and among many rude 

 nations they exist also as currency, and as public records and 

 pledges of treaties. I believe we have the earliest instance of 

 them in that strange and archaic passage of Genesis describino- the 

 Edenic Paradise, in which it is said of the Land of Havilah, that 

 it has ''gold and bdellium and the onyx stone, " an expression 



