TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 851 



These latter are sinnfulnr in that tbey are nomadic, have no totems, barter, not 

 using the universally prevailing shell-money, and in their dances the sexes dance 

 together. They believe in the invisible presence of spirits, but apparently have 

 no dread of their return in any foroi, such as prevails everywhere else in the archi- 

 pelago. The bush Kanakas' settlements, some fourteen miles from Ilerbertslobe, 

 were described, also the snares used for catching flying foxes, the sacred sign of 

 three crotons, planted equidistant, in front of the chief's hut, in a separate 

 enclosure, and the bachelors' hut in which dried bats are suspended from the roof 

 to present to the brides. 



5. The Northern Mound -builders 0/ North America. 

 By George Bryce, D.D., LL.D., F.R.S.C. 



The Northern Mound-builders described are, so far as known, the most 

 northerly in North America. The sites examined were: — 



1. The Red Kiver, on whose banks, at the junction of the river with the 

 Assiniboine Eiver, the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, stands. 



2. The Rainy River (150 miles east of Winnipeg), which falls into the Lake 

 of the Woods. 



3. The Lower Souris or Mouse River, at a point some 200 miles south-west of 

 Winnipeg. 



Number of mounds seen : 1. Red River . . 9 



2. Rainy River . .21 



3. Souris River . .21 



Total. . . 51 



Souris region : (a) The Roches Perches. A remarkable group of sandstone 

 rocks of the Tertiary period, standing on the open 

 prairie, covered with Indian pictures of the elk, 

 buft'alo, Indian star, and teepee. 



(Jb) Hill of the Murdered Scout. 



(c) Near by the Red Pipestone Quarry of Longfellow. 



{d) Remarkable earthworks on the south side of the South 

 Antler, a tributary of the Souris. 



The largest mound opened (on the Rainy River) was 110 feet long, 90 feet 

 wide, and 30 or 40 feet high. 



The following objects were obtained from the mounds : — 



1. Birch bark skull. 



2. Bones of birds (whistle, scraper, beads), present ornaments of bone. 



3. Stone implements — hammer, conjurer's tubes, chisels, scraper, chucky stones. 



4. Red and yellow ochre, lump of arsenical pyrites. 



5. Copper — copper frontlets from skull, needle, cutting-knife, hook, arrow- 

 head. 



6. Pottery — cup, fragments of many pieces of pottery with difi'erent designs. 



The purposes of the moimds appear to be two — 1. Sepulture. 2, Observation. 



The builders were not of the same race as the modern Indians. This is proved 

 by Indian tradition, by their being agriculturists, metal-workers, and pottery- 

 makers. 



It is suggested that they were of Toltec origin, having been driven from 

 Mexico up the Mississippi, then up the Missouri to the Souris, and then up the 

 Ohio ; others coming from the upper waters of the Mississippi to the Red and 

 Rainy Rivers. 



They seem to have been followed by the Sioux (Dakotas), Ii-oquois, who are 

 probably of Aztec origin. About the time of the coming of the white man in the 

 end of the sixteenth century they were, as Eries, Neutrals, and other pottery and 

 metal workers, blotted out, leaving their mounds behind them. 



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