6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



and to tlie York Pioneers. This Society has just made the Institute 

 custodian of a good collection of several hundreds of specimens, and 

 now the demand is for cases in which to preserve all that is in our 

 possession. 



Although we have to deplore that no records have been kept of 

 numerous historic sites, the very traces of which have become wholly 

 obliterated by the plough and otherwise, it is not yet too late to do 

 something. From the letters I have received during the summer, it 

 appears that there are still many localities that it would be of 

 immense importance to explore before either the farmer or the 

 curiosity-man thinks it desirable, for his own purposes, to begin the 

 work of levelling or burrowing. 



A recent communication to the Mail points out that in the valley 

 of the Rainy River there is a series of mounds, few of which have as 

 yet been disturbed. The writer, Mr. Chas. N. Bell, of Winnipeg, urges 

 the expediency of having these scientifically treated with all convenient 

 promptitude, but the probability is that nothing will be done until 

 Tom, Dick and Harry, with all their relatives, have so disfigured the 

 landscape and despoiled the deposits as to render any intelligent 

 examination an impossibility. 



To my mind these monuments, forming, as in all likelihood they 

 do, the very outposts of the territory occupied by the Mound 

 Builders, possess more than ordinary interest. We know their 

 southern limit and their central range, and who can say that the 

 exploration of those in the extreme north may not prove, like a third 

 term in proportion, what is a necessity, by way of enabling us to 

 arrive at a solution of the problem — the problem in this case being : 

 Who were the people that erected these immense earth heaps, and 

 did they move from the north southwards or vice versa 1 



At the very least we should have a survey made of these ancient 

 works, with ground-plans, perspective drawings, and accurate 

 descriptions. 



Near St. Thomas there is said to be another mound, and I have no 

 doubt, if I may judge from letters in my possession, that there are 

 several other similar structures in various parts of the country. So 

 far as private collections are concerned we have reason to be thankful 

 that a few good ones exist, and it is not improbable that some of 

 them at any rate may be secured for a provincial museum as soon as 

 it is within our power to purchase. 



