Cresson.] 366 [March 24, 



indicated by the forest growth would therefore seem to render this 

 theoij untenable. Again, whatever might have been the object of 

 the French in regions farther north, their only object here was to 

 gain a military possession of the territoiy. They had no means for 

 the transjDortation of the substance, neither could there have been 

 any adequate market for it. 



Another theory that has been entertained is, that they were con- 

 structed by the Indians. But at the time of the discovery of the 

 region, they had no practice of collecting oil in this manner; nor did 

 those of them who were friendly to the white man have any tradition 

 of their use. They used no vessels in which they could either store 

 or transport it in large quantities, while their uses for it were so 

 limited that the surface oil would more than have supplied their 

 wants. Cornplanter, a sagacious Indian chief, the last of the Seneca 

 chieftains of this region, was a friend of the white man, and lived in 

 the valley at the time that the French occupied it. He knew nothing 

 of any oil searching operations by the French, and had no knowledge 

 of the origin or the use of these pits, not even a tradition of them. 



From these evidences, Mr. Niles believed that these works must be 

 referred to the time of the ancient copper miners of the Lake Supe- 

 rior resion, and of the mound builders of the West. 



Section of Entomology. March 24, 1869. 



Mr, Edwai-d Burgess in the chair. Fourteen members 

 present. 



The Secretary presented the following paper : 



Notes on Mexican Pompilid.e, with Descriptions of New 

 Species. By E. T. Cresson. 



Genus POMPILUS Fabr. 

 Subgenus Pompilus. 



1. Pompilus philadelphieus. 



Pompilus jjhikuMphicus 8t. Farg., Hym. iii, p. 423. Cresson, 

 Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, i, p. 87. 

 . Pompilus cubensis Cress, (var.^. Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, i, p. 93. 



