18 TKANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. 1. 



He began by indicating the progress that has been made of late years 

 in the study of the American aborigines, noting the problems that had 

 already been solved, and those, and there were many, which yet waited 

 for a solution. The tendency of American investigation at the present 

 day is to study the aborigines as Americans, or, as Mr. Henshaw has well 

 put it, " to find out what they are " before seeking to discover " who they 

 are," to find out how long they have been on this American continent 

 before trying to determine from what part of the world they migrated 

 hither. There was also a distinct trend of opinion in favor of the great 

 antiquity of savage man in America. The writer pointed out in what 

 relation the study of the aborigines of Canada stood to these great 

 questions, what had been done in investigation in the past and what yet 

 remained to be done in the future. He also dealt with race classification, 

 showing how impossible it was to catalogue races of men by the color of 

 their skin, their hair, or the formation of their skulls. A study of these 

 peculiarities amongst the Indians of Canada was sufficient to reject all of 

 them for the present at least, as absolute race classifiers. He noticed the 

 opinion of Major Powell, that a classification of mankind into groups 

 had resulted everywhere in failure, and inclined strongly to the view 

 advocated by the venerable philologist Horatio Hale, shared also by 

 Freeman, the historian, and seemingly, too, by Prof Max Muller, that in 

 our day language is the only certain test of race. He proceeded to dis- 

 cuss the linguistic families of Canada, the Eskimo, the Algonkian, the 

 Iroquoian, the Siouan, the Athapaskan, the Salish, etc., pointing out their 

 importance in the study of American comparative philology, and noting 

 the results of the recent investigations of Rink, Murdoch, Petitot, Cuoq, 

 Legoff, Dorsey, Henshaw, Hewitt, Boas, Hale, and others. He pointed 

 out that Canada was a remarkably fertile field for ethnographical research, 

 for within its borders lay the primitive habitats of the Eskimo, 

 Iroquoian, and Algonkian races, according to the opinions of eminent 

 scholars. The question of the relation of the Canadian aborigines to 

 those of the United States was pointed out as being of very great im- 

 portance, as was also the connection that must have existed in the past 

 between the Indians proper and the Eskimo. The subject of the religion 

 of the Indians of Canada was then taken up, and the opinion of Col. 

 Mallory cited and agreed with that apart from ideas imparted to them 

 by the whites, the American Indians never had any knowledge of a sole 

 beneficent being, had no idea of monotheism as we now understand it. 

 Myths of origin were then considered and curious beliefs cited, such as 

 those of the Iroquois, who believed their forefathers came out of a little 

 eminence near Oswego Falls ; of the Blackfeet, who thought that their 

 ancestors came out of two lakes in their country — men out of one. 



