8 



was thus obtained. Its author was long Indian Agent at Sault 

 Ste. Marie, and his ponderous tomes gave Longfellow the 

 Algonquin legends which appear in Hiawatha. 



Another collection, a perfect library in itself, is the work 

 of H. H. Bancroft, a relative of the historian. This set is 

 large quarto, sheep bound, forty-one volumes averaging 800 

 pages a volume, of information as to Canada and Western 

 America, relating to native races of the West Coast, Central 

 America, Mexico, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona, Alaska, 

 Missouri, California, Northwest Coast (Canada), Nevada, 

 Utah, Oregon and British Columbia. This amazing collection 

 of upwards of 31,000 large pages was secured at a reasonable 

 cost. The most notable " find " in the library is a bound set 

 of " Punch," from the beginning (1841) complete up to a 

 recent date, valued at $250, which was secured for one-fifth 

 of that sum. In this way the limited sums at the command of 

 the Society have been used to great advantage. 



GENEROUS PEOPLE. 



It was a daring enterprise of the Society in the second 

 year of its history (1881) to undertake to raise money for 

 opening a public library for the benefit of the citizens. We 

 find that $2,000 was in that year obtained by subscription from 

 citizens and that the City Council gave $500 to the Society for 

 this public benefit. No less than 2,500 volumes were taken out 

 by readers in the first year. This was the beginning of the 

 City Public library. 



At this time was begun also another important branch of 

 the work of the Society. The aim was made to publish every 

 year four or five papers of value, and to make these represen- 

 tative of the work done. Up to date these publications, called 

 transactions, have reached the number of sixty-three. Every 

 year these transactions are sent to all the newspapers published 

 west of Lake Superior, and these journals respond by sending 



