70 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. I. 



and pale-faced people from the east, armed (if I may use the expression) 

 with a bible in one hand, and a musket or a bottle of fire-water in the 

 other. 



The royal sturgeon of the big river, the maskalonge and lesser fish of 

 the lakes, and the speckled trout of the small streams abundantly minis- 

 tered to their wants. The soil in point of quality left nothing to be 

 desired, and doubtless many a small clearing produced maize, and pump- 

 kins for food, sun-flowers for oil, and tobacco for solace or ceremony. 



Situated on a natural and comparatively narrow frontier, the Indians 

 who inhabited this district were not slow to perceive the advantages as 

 well as the disadvantages of their position. Their territory formed an 

 immense middle ground between contending parties, east, north and 

 south. With statesman-like diplomacy they refrained as much as possi- 

 ble from mixing themselves in these tribal wars, and, no doubt, profited 

 by largesses from the opposing forces that had to traverse their country. 

 It is uncertain how long they had maintained this attitude prior to the 

 appearance of the French and English, but their position in this respect 

 during the first half of the 17th century had gained for them the name of 

 Neutrals. 



It is inevitable that a people so circumstanced should have made con- 

 siderable advance in rude mechanical art, and it is just as certain as any- 

 thing can be that their relics have been turned up in large quantities 

 during the clearing and cultivation of the farms for which Niagara dis- 

 trict is famous, and yet, strange to say, there is scarcely any portion of 

 old Ontario which is so poorly represented in the Provincial Archaeo- 

 logical Museum. 



True as are the remarks quoted relative to the value of primitive 

 legends by way of enabling us to understand the modes of thought, 

 manners of life, and conditions of early society, it may safely be asserted 

 that even more may be learned from a close and patient study of such 

 utensils, implements and weapons as we find to-day on the sites of ancient 

 villages and kitchen-middens, or scattered about as they have been lost 

 in the chase or on the battle-ground, 



A comparison of American with European relics while exhibiting 

 many points of resemblance, brings out also a very large number of 

 divergencies. The hornstone celt and the flint arrow, or their equiva- 

 lents in other material were coincident with primitive man in every part 

 of the world, but, besides these, there are forms peculiar to certain large 

 areas, and not seldom, to districts of comparatively limited extent. 



To learn the uses of these is to arrive at a knowledge, not only of how 



