(JO RELIQUIAE AQUITANKLE. 



their own resources, and shipwrecked seamen) thrown under the same conditions 

 of life, in a similar style of country, will instinctively strike upon the -same 

 adaptations of rude nature around them to assist them or to ameliorate their 

 existence. I speak from hard-earned experience. For instance, the stone era 

 (and it will perhaps be found that there was a bone age before the " stone " one) 

 is just extinct among the Indian tribes of the north-west slope of the Rocky 

 Mountains. I have collected many stone axes, scalping-knives, &c., of a shape 

 almost identical with those being now disinterred in the Drift, &c. 



Doubtless the lacustrine dwellings of Switzerland were formed for defence, 

 against either wild beasts or wilder men, by some weak tribe ; for I find traditions 

 among the Indian races that they at one time erected similar edifices to protect 

 themselves against an animal which ravaged the country long long ago. This, 

 from description, was no doubt the Mastodon. I find the tradition identical 

 among the Indians of the Snoqualami and Peace Rivers, who have no connexion 

 with each other ; but in both localities remains of that animal are found abun- 

 dantly. The discovery of the remains of Man and implements of the chase 

 among the bones of that animal, and even marks of the spears on the bones, 

 with embers of the fires, leaves little doubt that the Mastodon was contemporary 

 with Man. These were found, I think, in Missouri* ; but I speak from memory, 

 as I have been separated from books and civilization (unless of the rudest frontier 

 description) for some years past. 



The spears figured in { Reliquiae Aquitanicte,' B. Plate I., were doubtless fish- 

 spears, such as are used at this very day amongst the Eskimo and other rude 

 races : some with reverted points, as in figs. 4 ? and 10, are used by the Eskimo 

 as bird-spears (compound), so that if the main point misses, one of the side 

 spearlets will be sure to strike. 



The only other use of Deer-horns which I have seen was as a rude sword, 

 which the old Indians have told me was once a common weapon ; and I have 

 seen the Eskimo in Lancaster Sound, &c., use a knife of a similar character. 



If you wished further information about British-Columbian savage implements, 

 you might obtain it from : Dr. William F. Tolmie, Chief Factor of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, at Victoria, Vancouver's Island; Sir James Douglas, K.C.B., 



* See a memoir descriptive of " Mastodon Eemains in the State of Missouri, together with Evidences 

 of the existence of Man contemporaneously with the Mastodon, by Dr. Albert C. Koch," in the Transactions 

 of the Academy of Science of St.-Louis, vol. i. p. 61 (1860). The same subject was noticed previously in 

 the ' Philadelphia Presbyterian ' Newspaper for January 12, 1839, and in the ' American Journal of Science 

 and Arte,' vol. xxxvi. p. 198 (1839). EDIT. 



