8 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
compound consonant corresponding to our ch, taking the place of j in 
the Ojibway. The attached vowels are represented as before by the 
position of the consonants thus V the symbol of the pi mute reads thus— 
V pa, A pe, > po, < pias you turn the angle down, up, right or left. 
It will be seen from the changes thus introduced in 1841 from his 
first draft for a different species of the family in 1836, how thoroughly 
he understood the phonetic elements of human speech and their finer 
shades of difference, as they appear in different languages even of the 
same family; and how accurately he had classified these elements as 
vowels or diphthongs, semi vowels or liquids, sibilants, mutes, and 
compound consonants. His final draft shows that the classes, sub- 
classes and even specific members remained fixed, a pi mute is still pi 
mute, the variation being from smooth and middle to an intermediate 
form varying slightly from either of these Greek or English forms. He 
had also discovered that the aspirate is quite wanting in these languages 
as an initial vowel or an initial consonant. None of the mutes are 
aspirates, but something between the smooth and the middle, 7. e., 
between p and b, t and d, k and g, a position of the organs of articulation 
foreign and very difficult to us, as our positions are to them. 
His next task was to introduce this alphabet to the tribes with 
which he was now associated. For this purpose he was favorably 
situated. As superintendent of the Mission work throughout the 
entire territory, he travelled widely from Hudson’s Bay to the Moun- 
tains and as far north as the Athabasca tribes, touching nearly the | 
whole country of the Crees East and West. But his first efforts began 
with the school children at Norway House and some of the Seniors, 
and his first books were made with the pen and with birch bark. This 
at once appealed to the Indian imagination. It was “birch bark 
talking,” so they expressed it in their own picturesque way. Again 
its simplicity made it easy, another important element of popularity. 
There were but nine characters to be learned, their forms so distinct 
that there was no such confusion as a child with us experiences between 
abandadorapandaq. The vowels were expressed by four positions, 
up, down, right and left. These in themselves were sufficient for the 
expression of the language, for the few terminals required would sug- 
gest themselves when once all the main elements of the word were 
before the eye. September 15th, 1840, Mr. Evans writes: “I com- 
menced a school on the opposite side of the river and had about twenty- 
five scholars anxious to learn, teaching them to read the English and 
their own tongue.” October 15th, he writes:. “Several of the boys know 
all the letters, (I) having written the alphabet for each; and they are 
much pleased with their new books, but not more so than I am myself.” 
October 19th, “Several of the boys are beginning to read the written 
