‘228 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [ Von. Ifl. 
the aboriginal remains in Victoria County were the work of Hurons. 
Further evidence of their migration is yielded by the frequency of 
French relics in North Simcoe and their scarcity in the southern and 
eastern counties, indicating that the former was chiefly occupied by the 
Hurons after the year 1615 when the French first came amongst them. 
This has already been shown at some length in a paper by the writer 
entitled “French Relics from Village Sites of the Hurons,” which was 
read before the Institute and published in the Third Archaeological 
Report (1889). 
It is often stated that a “ Feast of the Dead” was held in each of the 
five tribes of the Nation once in ten or twelve years. But from the large 
number of ossuaries which contain French relics, and which accordingly 
must have been interred between the years 1615 and 1649, it is evident 
that the ceremony took place much oftener. 
There can scarcely be a possibility that an agricultural nation, such as 
the Hurons were, could have had its beginnings in this province, where 
the prevalence of forests would prevent any development in an agri- 
cultural direction, but where, on the contrary, the conditions would 
produce hunters and fisher-men like the Algonquins. It may be reason- 
ably inferred that they originally came from a region where there were 
few trees to interfere with agricultural operations, such as the western 
plains ; at any rate a northern or eastern origin of this people in the 
Laurentian rock region appears unlikely. Much investigation, however, 
is still required before these questions can be settled and the origin of the 
Huron race determined. 
