ON ' ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTES AND QUERIES.' 173 



Institute would be willing to undertake the task and to proceed with the 

 work during the ensuing winter. 



The Committee have not required to draw any of the money placed at 

 its disposal last year by the Association, as its work has hitherto been 

 entirely that of making preliminary arrangements. 



The Committee ask to be reappointed, and, as during the course of 

 next year money will be required for printing and publishing, they request 

 that the sum of 501. be placed at their disposal for that purpose. The sum 

 asked for is the same as was contributed by the Association towards the 

 publication of the first edition in 1874. 



Third Report of the Gomrdittee, consisting of Dr. E. B. Tylor, 

 Dr. Gr. M. Dawson, Greneral Sir J. H. Lefroy, Dr. Daniel 

 Wilson, Mr. E. Gr. Haliburton, and Mr. George W. Bloxam 

 {Secretary^, appointed for the purpose of investigating and 

 publishing reports on the physical characters, languages, and 

 industrial and social condition of the North-western Tribes of 

 the Dominion of Canada. 



Tbe following ' Circular of Inquiry ' has been drawn up by the Com- 

 mittee for distribution amongst those most likely to be able to supply 

 information : — 



At the meeting of the British Association at Montreal in 1884 the 

 subject of Canadian anthropology came frequently under public and 

 private discussion. The opinion was strongly expressed that an effort 

 should be made to record as perfectly as possible the characteristics and 

 condition of the native tribes of the Dominion before their racial pecu- 

 liarities become less distinguishable through intermarriage and dispersion, 

 and before contact with civilised men has further obliterated the remains 

 of their original arts, customs, and beliefs. 



Two considerations especially forced themselves on the attention of 

 anthropologists at Montreal : first, that the construction of the Canadian 

 Pacific Railroad, traversing an enormous stretch of little known country 

 on both sides of the Rocky Mountains, has given ready access to a number 

 of native tribes whose languages and mode of life ofi'er a field of inquiry 

 as yet but imperfectly worked ; secondly, that in the United States, where 

 the anthropology of the indigenous tribes has for years past been treated 

 as a subject of national importance, not only have the scientific societies 

 been actively engaged in research into the past and present condition of 

 the native populations, but the Bureau of Ethnology, presided over by 

 the Hon. J. W. Powell (present at the Montreal meeting), is constituted 

 as a Government department, sending out qualified agents to reside among 

 the western tribes for purposes of philological and anthropological study. 

 Through these public and private explorations a complete body of infor- 

 mation is being collected and published, while most extensive series of 

 specimens illustrative of native arts and habits are preserved in the 

 museums of the United States, especially in the National Museum at 

 Washington. If these large undertakings be compared with what has 

 hitherto been done in Canada, it has to be admitted that the Dominion 



