PROCEEDINGS FOR 1903 XXVII 



aboriginal people, should find a permanent place in our own museums, rather 

 than in those of a foreign country. 



We therefore earnestly pray our petition may be granted, and ever 

 remain, 



Your obedient servants, 



D. P. PenhalljOW, 



Chairman. 



J. W. LONGLEY, 



James Grant, M.D., K.C.M.G. 



T. J. W. Burgess, M.D. 



John Campbell. 



George Bryce. 



■\V. Wilfred Campbell. 



It will be for the Society to take such further steps as may seem 

 advisable. 



23. Archives. 



The ofïice of Archivist, vacant by the death of the late Dr. Brymner, 

 has not yet been filled and the report for the year 1903 has not yet 

 been published. Mr. Edouard Eichard, who has been in France for 

 five years, making researches, has returned and is preparing for pub- 

 blication the results of his labours. Continuing the detailed report of 

 1899, he has anal3^zed the documents he indicated in that report as to 

 be found in the Ministère des Colonies, to which department all the 

 documents formerly in the Archives de la Marine have been removed. 

 Only a few volumes relating to Cavelier de La Salle and the posts on 

 the Illinois remain to be analyzed. 



He found in the Archives Nationales and the Depot des Cartes et 

 Plans in the Rue de l'Université, a rich collection of documents unex- 

 plored and almost untouched. He was not able to obtain permission 

 from the French authorities to analyze, still less, to transcribe anything 

 there. There are unsettled questions of diplomacy, rendering it unad- 

 visable to open up these Archives for the present; but it may yet be 

 possible, without throwing open these Archives to strangers, to obtain 

 through the services of offi'cers of the French Civil Service, copies of 

 many of the documents. Meanwhile, Mr. Richard is preparing for the 

 press the results of his labours. They will require two volumes of 

 about 500 pages each. 



' 24. FORESTHY, 



In the very first volume of the Transactions of this Society is a 

 paper read, in 1882, by Dr. William Saunders, upon the value of our 

 forests and the imperative need of taking immiediate steps to prevent 



