4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



four or five years, and twice either of these sums might be employed 

 to good advantage. 



In April of the current year we issued a circular asking for infor- 

 mation relative to this subject, in response to which many letters 

 have been received, some expressive of sympathy with the project, 

 some giving information regarding specimens, some promising 

 assistance, and others extending hearty invitations to explore in 

 promising localities. 



In accepting one of these invitations from the Kev. T. T. Johnstone 

 of Ancaster, I went, accompanied by Messrs. James Bain and Arthur 

 Cox, F.R.S.A., to that township, which, from an aboriginal point of 

 view, may almost be called classic — the township of Beverley. Here 

 we collected a number of valuable I'elics, but owing to the ground hav- 

 ing been seeded down we were unable to do more than examine the 

 surface. Mr. Cox kindly sketched, on the spot, two of the most 

 interesting localities, and I have been peculiarly fortunate in securing 

 the services of an artistic friend to enlarge Mr. Cox's sketches 

 for our use this evening, and I am sure you will agree with me that 

 for the purpose in view the work has been admirably done. 



On the farm of Mr. James Rae we were taken over a field of 

 about five acres from which there have been collected since the time 

 it was cleared no fewer than 200 iron tomahawks. Of course these 

 are of European manufacture, but are of the type used by the early 

 French and British occupiers to befool the red man in exchange for 

 his peltries, or, it may be, sim])ly for liberty to traverse the country 

 unmolested. 



In proof of the statement made by Mr. Rae regarding the number 

 of tomahawks turned up here, we found by actual count more than 

 70 of these uncovith but murderous looking weapons mounted 

 picturesquely along the top of the pickets foi'ming one side of his 

 garden fence. Under the stamp of a tree in the field referred to, we 

 unearthed several pieces of pottery, and as the tree itself (judging 

 from an examination of the stump), must have been at least 150 years 

 old, we have an approximation to a date which would correspond very 

 closely with the appearance of the French in these western wilds. 

 "Why the tomahawks were left upon the ground by their possessors, 

 is just one of these problems which, if capable of solution at all, we 

 may hope to solve only by the aid of the cognate studies, history and 

 archaeology. The settlers in the neighborhood appear to have 



