December S, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



793 



can/ Salish, Kootenay, Eskimo," Algonkin or 

 Iroquois languages have as yet been ade- 

 quately dealt with. The time is at hand when 

 purely descriptive linguistic study in America 

 will have to be supplemented by comparative 

 and reconstructive work; it is becoming in- 

 creasingly evident that such research requires 

 the most minute attention to phonetic detail. 



The physical anthropology of aboriginal 

 Canada needs to be put on a sounder and 

 wider basis than heretofore. Outside of Dr. 

 Boas's work on the physical types of the West 

 Coast and interior regions adjoining the coast, 

 practically nothing has been accomplished in 

 Canada with strict regard to scientific method. 

 As a result all present attempts to classify the 

 native physical types of the dominion must be 

 merely approximate. 



It can hardly be hoped that the newly estab- 

 lished division of anthropology will be able 

 unaided to make the ideally complete survey 

 that has been outlined. The cooperation of 

 other institutions and individuals interested 

 in anthropological problems is not only wel- 

 come but necessary. Complaints are some- 

 times heard as to the duplication of field work 

 among natives. Eightly considered such 

 duplication should always be welcomed, for 

 the personal equation in the investigation of 

 social sciences is a feature which, though 

 often tacitly ignored, must always be reck- 

 oned with. 



The ethnological work already under- 

 taken by the division embraces three dis- 

 tinct lines of inquiry. The first of these 

 was undertaken by the writer among the 

 Nootka, and resulted in the amassing of much 

 material of linguistic and ethnological inter- 

 est. It is intended to carry forward this work 

 from year to year. The second line of inquiry 

 is the analysis of the culture of the Iroquois, 

 including under this term the Huron- Wyan- 

 dots, who were never included in the league. 

 This work was undertaken for the Huron- 

 Wyandots by Mr. Barbeau, who, beginning 



° Yet Father Morice 's grasp of Carrier phonetics 

 seems excellent. 



° Except for Kleinschmidt 's and Thalbitzer 's 

 work on Greenland Eskimo. 



with the Hurons of Lorette and the few Wyan- 

 dots still left in western Ontario, took up an 

 intensive study of the most conservative 

 group of Wyandots, those of Oklahoma. The 

 study of the Iroquois proper, particularly 

 from the point of view of social organization, 

 was entrusted to Dr. A. A. Goldenweiser, of 

 Columbia University, who has amassed much 

 of value at Grand River Reserve. The third 

 point of attack was the culture of the eastern 

 Algonkin tribes. Here a beginning was made 

 by Dr. Cyrus MacMillan, of McGill, among the 

 Micmac, and by Mr. W. H. Mechling among 

 the Malecite. It is hoped to begin systematic 

 work among the Cree, Ojibwa, Plains tribes 

 and tribes of the Plateau-Mackenzie region as 

 soon as opportunity wiU permit. So far the 

 archeologieal work of the division has been 

 confined to a preliminary reconnaissance, by , 

 ilr. Smith, of the field in eastern Canada. 

 Hand in hand with research and publication, 

 which must naturally form the main activ- 

 ity of an anthropological survey of Canada, is 

 the building up of an anthropological section 

 of the national museum at Ottawa. At pres- 

 ent the museum is relatively rich in West 

 Coast ethnological and Ontario archeologieal 

 material to the neglect of other fields. Per- 

 sistent efEorts are now being made to round 

 out the resources of the museum. 



The Canadian government is to be congrat- 

 ulated on having established a systematic sur- 

 vey of aboriginal Canada. Now or never is 

 the time in which to collect from the natives 

 what is still available for study. In some 

 cases a tribe has already practically given up 

 its aboriginal culture and what can be ob- 

 tained is merely that which the older men still 

 remember and care to impart. With the in- 

 creasing material prosperity and industrial 

 development of Canada the demoralization or 

 civilization of the Indians will be going on at 

 an ever increasing rate. No shortsighted 

 policy of economy should be allowed to inter- 

 fere with the thorough and rapid prosecution 

 of the anthropological problems of the do- 

 minion. What is lost now will never be re- 

 covered again. E. Sapir 



Geological Survey of Canada 



