144 PROCEEDINGS OP THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



FIFTEENTH MEETING. 



'Fifteenth Meeting, 26th February, 1887, the President in 

 the Chair. 



Exchanges since last meeting, 30. 



G. M. Rae and T. G. Mason were elected members. 



Mr. A. F. Chamberlain, B.A., read a paper on " Pre-historic 

 Ethnology." 



He said man probably originated in a continent occupying in former 

 times the ocean south, of Africa and Australia. He approximated in 

 phvsical features to the negro. At a very early date the primitive 

 stock divided into two branches, one with lighter skin and hair 

 less woolly than the other. From the latter of these the surviving 

 negro races have descended ; from the former the brown races of 

 Africa, from the parent stem of which have descended the Ai-yan and 

 Semitic nations, who passed into Evirope and Asia respectively from 

 Africa. The Semites are probably less Caucasian in type than the 

 Aryans. The primitive seat of the Aryans before their dispersion 

 was in Europe ; The Swiss lake dwellers and the old Pelasgians, who 

 survive in the Albanians of to-day, were descended from the primi- 

 tive Aryan stock. The Eskimo reached America from Europe, and 

 from their parent stock hav^ descended the Mongol tribes of Asia, 

 with the Japanese and the Chinese. Two points which are of great 

 importance in prehistoric ethnology are the antiquity of man in 

 America and the extensive range of the old Caucasian type in early 

 times. It is well to note that the evidence gained from the study of 

 the languages does not bear out the theorj'^ that language originated 

 in monosyllabic roots. The rest of the paper was taken up with the 

 discussion of surviving primitive races, e. g., the Basques, Fulahs, 

 Australians, Ainos and Eskimos, and their bearing on prehistoric 

 ethnology ; and with the proofs that archaeology and comparative 

 mythology and folk-lore afford of the attainments and culture of 

 primitive man. 



Mr. Rouse thought that too high an antiquity had been 

 assumed for the lake dwellings of Europe. He had visited 

 the museums of the lake dwellings at Zurich, and had noticed 

 that a number of the specimens of cereals showed the action 

 of fire. May not this have occurred at the time of the inv 



