Geographic Notes 



2+3 



McGee. The collection comprises 19 

 crania, of which several were trephined 

 more than once. The trephined skulls 

 were selected from a collection of 1,000 

 made by the late Dr. Manuel A. Muniz 

 in pre-Columbian, and probably pre- 

 Incan, cemeteries in different portions 

 of Peru ; and they are of interest as 

 showing that this major surgical oper- 

 ation was more common among the 

 aborigines of South America than in 

 the most highly advanced nations of 

 today. 



The ratio of trephined crania is just 

 below two per cent ; but since one speci- 

 men shows three operations and two 

 others three each, the ratio of trephin- 

 ing to population indicated by the col- 

 lection is nearly two and one-half per 

 cent. The technic of the operation was 

 critically studied by McGee, and de- 

 scribed in a recent report of the Bureau 

 of American Ethnology. It would ap- 

 pear from his researches that the opera- 

 tion was not therapeutic in the ordinary 

 sense of the term, but was thaumaturgic 

 and closely allied to the so-called ' ' medi- 

 cine ' ' of various tribes, in which the 

 treatment consists of occult ceremonies 

 and skillful jugglery by the shamans. 



UNEXPLORED CANADA 



ONE-THIRD of the area of Canada 

 is practically unknown, states the 

 Director of the Geological Surve}^ of the 

 Dominion in his last report. 



There are more than i ,250,000 square 

 miles of unexplored lands in Canada. 

 The entire area of the Dominion is com- 

 puted at 3,450,257 square miles ; conse- 

 quently one-third of this country has yet 

 been untraveled by the explorer. Ex- 

 clusive of the inhospitable detached 

 Arctic portions, 954,000 square miles is 

 for all practical purposes entirely un- 

 known. 



Most of this unknown area is distrib- 

 uted in the western half of the Dominion 



in impenetrated blocks of from 25,000 to 

 100,000 square miles — that is, areas as 

 large as the States of Ohio, Kansas, or 

 New England are yet a secret to white 

 man. 



Beginning at the extreme northwest 

 of the Dominion, the first of these areas 

 is between the eastern boundary of 

 Alaska, the Porcupine River, and the 

 Arctic coast, about 9,500 square miles in 

 extent, or somewhat smaller than Bel- 

 gium, and lying entirely within the 

 Arctic Circle. The next is west of the 

 Lewes and Yukon Rivers and extends to 

 the boundary of Alaska. Until last year 

 32,000 square miles in this area were 

 unexplored, but a part has since been 

 traveled. A third area of 27,000 square 

 miles — nearly twice as large as Scot- 

 land — lies between the Lewes, Pelly , and 

 Stikine Rivers. Between the Pelly and 

 Mackenzie Rivers is another large tract 

 of 100,000 square miles, or about double 

 the size of England. It includes nearly 

 600 miles of the main Rocky Mountain 

 range. An unexplored area of 50,000 

 square miles is found between Great 

 Bear Lake and the Arctic coast, being 

 nearly all to the north of the Arctic 

 Circle. 



Nearly as large as Portugal is another 

 tract between Great Bear Lake, the 

 Mackenzie River, and the western part 

 of Great Slave Lake, in all 35,000 square 

 miles. Lying between Stikine and Laird 

 Rivers to the north and the Skeena and 

 Peace Rivers to the south is an area of 

 81,000 square miles, which, except for 

 a recent visit by a field party, is quite 

 unexplored. Of the 35,000 square miles 

 southeast of Athabasca Lake, little is 

 known, except that it has been crossed 

 by a field party en route to Fort Church- 

 ill. East of the Coppermine River and 

 west of Bathurst Inlet lies 7,500 miles of 

 unexplored land, which may be com- 

 pared to half the size of Switzerland. 

 Eastward from this, lying between the 

 Arctic coast and Blacks River, is an 

 area of 31,000 square miles, or about 



