1898-99. | THE EARLY DAYS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE, 13 
the happiness of all who follow them. It is the distinctive character of 
this Institute, and in my opinion, the best pledge for its healthy and 
vigorous progress, that its commencement has been eminently practical. 
The gentlemen who founded it, satisfied a want of their own, before they 
extended their thoughts to a provision for a public want, and for 
posterity. I may refer to the second clause of the fifth section of the 
bye-laws, for the best proof which can be given of the spirit in which it 
has been formed. To disdain the day of small things,—to reject the 
seed pearls that are within our reach, because the pearls of price lie 
deeper than we can yet dive for them,—this is no design of the founders 
of this association, neither is it intended that the papers read here shall 
be laid by in the Secretary’s desk, to be published in the Greek Calends, 
but on the contrary, by timely publication, to secure to all the members, 
absent or present, their share of instruction, their interest in its proceed- 
ings, and to the authors of papers, that pleasure, which like the charms 
of Cieopatra, ‘age cannot wither, or custom stale,’ of seeing them in 
print as soon as possible. Every year the plough is obliterating the last 
traces of our predecessors upon this soil. Every year the axe lays low 
some invaluable witness to the ages which have elapsed since populous 
villages of another race were scattered far and wide through our now 
lifeless forests. We are fast forgetting that the bygone ages even of the 
new world were filled by living men, and fast losing by neglect, all those 
delicate links in the chain of research, by which the archeologist of 
another generation may hope to trace out the origin and the fortunes of 
a great branch of the human family. If it has been found even in 
Great Britain, that scarcely five per cent. of the rare and interesting 
remains from time to time brought to light, are recoverable after a few 
years, unless they are lodged in some public museum, we may be very 
sure that a proportion even larger, of such remains as Canada furnishes, 
are lost for want of such an institution. There is reason to believe that 
there is at this moment in Canada, one of the most ancient and interesting 
of Scottish medieval remains, the Quigrich—the Crozier of that favorite 
Celtic Saint St. Fillan, who flourished in the middle of the seventh century, 
still in the possession of the heirs of the family which has been honored 
with its custody ‘sin the tyme of King Robert the Bruys and before,’ 
since the days of the Bruce ; we can nevertheless but regret that if it were 
possible to rescue it from the chances which befall all sublunary posses- 
sions; from fire, or theft, or the Sheriff, there should be no museum in 
which to deposit it. To return, however, to Indian antiquities, let me 
mention topography, or rather the naming of places. When the last 
Pine-wood of Chinguacousy (Chinquak kon sebi) is levelled ; when art 
has provided another outlet than the river mouth in Nottawasaga ; when 
