OCTOBEB 29, 1909] 



aCIENCE 



613 



making an effort to establish another in the City 

 of Mexico, the object of these two schools being 

 the study of American archeology. 



After reviewing the work done by Harvard, 

 Yale, Columbia, the University of California, the 

 University of Pennsylvania, the American Museum 

 of Natural History and the Field Museum of Nat- 

 ural History, Dr. Gordon called attention to the 

 services rendered to anthropology by private indi- 

 viduals and paid a special tribute to Mr. George 

 G. Heye, of New York, whose collections of Amer- 

 ican archeology and ethnology assembled during 

 the last two years may be compared in magni- 

 tude and importance with those assembled during 

 the same period by some of the larger museums. 

 The result achieved in this instance may serve to 

 indicate what may be done in American archeology 

 in a short time by one man who is possessed not 

 only of the necessary means, but also the necessary 

 energy intelligently directed. These splendid col- 

 lections are now being installed in the University 

 of Pennsylvania Museum, where Mr. Heye has 

 been elected chairman for American anthropology 

 on the board of managers in recognition of his 

 conspicuous services to science. 



In similar terms the speaker referred to the 

 archeological work done by Mr. B. Talbot B. Hyde 

 among the ruined pueblos, where a splendid collec- 

 tion of pottery and other art objects was obtained, 

 which has been divided between the American 

 Museum of Natural History in New York and the 

 University Museum in Philadelphia. 



Dr. Gordon's second contribution was based on 

 his " Ethnological Researches in Alaska." In 

 1907 he made an expedition on behalf of the 

 University of Pennsylvania Museum into the Kos- 

 kokwim Valley in Alaska to investigate the na- 

 tives of that region, who, owing to the remoteness 

 of their habitat from the white man's influence, 

 pre.serve in a marked d^ree their aboriginal 

 characteristics. The route followed was from 

 Dawson westward by way of the Tanana and 

 Kantishna rivers to the headwaters of the Kos- 

 kokwim, thence down the entire length of that 

 river to the coast. In the upper valley of the 

 Koskokwim were found Den6 tribes preserving 

 the characteristics of the wide-spread Den6 stock. 

 About seven hundred miles from the mouth of the 

 river, Eskimo influence began to be felt; two or 

 three hundred miles farther down Eskimo customs 

 had entirely replaced the native customs even in 

 those communities where there was little or no 

 mixture of Eskimo blood. The tendency of the 

 Den6 in this region to adopt Eskimo culture 



which has intruded from the Behring Sea coast is 

 strongly marked and shows that the Eskimo cul- 

 ture is the more aggressive and the more advanced. 

 At the mouth of the Koskokwim, the Eskimo com- 

 munities have retained in full vigor their peculiar 

 customs and mode of life, because that part of the 

 Alaskan coast has not been visited by trading ves- 

 sels or by whalers. 



The general health and physical welfare of these 

 communities as well as of those on the Kos- 

 kokwin River were noticeably better than in those 

 localities where the natives have been in continued 

 contact with the white man's influence, as, for 

 instance, on the Yukon and on Norton Sound. 

 At the same time the mental and moral state of 

 the former population is decidedly better than 

 that of the latter. All observations tended to 

 show that the inhabitants of Alaska, both Den€ 

 and Eskimo, undergo deterioration physical and 

 moral under the influence of civilization. 



Mr. Charles Hill-Tout gave an account of his 

 researches into the " Ethnology of the Okanflken," 

 the easternmost division of the Salish of British 

 Columbia. The subject was treated from the 

 standpoint of habitat and old settlements, rela- 

 tion of the common language spoken by the whole 

 division to contiguous linguistic divisions of the 

 same stock, material and social culture, totemism, 

 evidence from material culture and language bear- 

 ing upon the origin of the stock before the division 

 into its present grouping. The linguistic evidence 

 points to a connection with Oceanic stocks. Speci- 

 mens of Okanaken myths were given, also an out- 

 line of the grammatical structure of the Okanflken 

 dialect. 



Professor E. Guthrie Perry exhibited an inter- 

 esting series of copper implements recently found 

 together in the bed of the river at Fort Francis, 

 Ontario. The fact that one of the pieces is tipped 

 with silver leads Professor Perry to conclude that 

 the material from which these implements were 

 made came from the north shore of Lake Superior. 



Another communication of special local interest 

 was that by Professor Henry Montgomery on the 

 " Archeology of Ontario and Manitoba." 



Much of the seventeenth century's history of 

 that portion of Canada now known as Ontario has 

 been verified, and additional information obtained 

 about the Iroquois, Hurons and Algonquins and 

 also the earlier inhabitants by the archeologists 

 Tache, Daniel Wilson, A. F. Hunter and David 

 Boyle. Some of the collections are in the Toronto 

 Provincial University, others in the Toronto Pro- 

 vincial Normal School, the Dominion Survey Mu- 



