﻿Address. 423 



The manners and customs of these primitive tribes and 

 peoples are changing day by day, their languages are 

 becoming obsolete, their myths and traditions are dying 

 out, their ancient processes of manufacture are falling into 

 oblivion, and their numbers are rapidly diminishing, 

 so that it seems inevitable that ere long many of these 

 interesting populations will become absolutely extinct. 

 Tlie admirable Bureau of Ethnology instituted by our 

 neighbors in the United States of America has done much 

 towards preserving a knowledge of the various native 

 races in this vast continent ; and here in Canada the 

 annual Arclueological reports presented to the Minister of 

 Education are rendering good service in the same cause. 



Moreover, the Committee of this Association appointed 

 to investigate the physical characters, languages and 

 industrial and social conditions of the North-Western 

 tribes of the Dominion of Canada is about to present 

 its twelfth and final report, which in conjunction with 

 those already presented will do much towards preserving 

 a knowledge of the habits and languages of those tribes. 

 It is sad to think that Mr. Horatio Hale, whose compre- 

 hensive grasp of the bearings of ethnological questions, 

 and whose unremitting labors have so materially conduced 

 to the success of the Committee, should be no longer 

 among us. Although this report is said to be final, it is 

 to be hoped that the Committee may be able to indicate 

 lines upon which future work in the direction of ethno- 

 logical and archaeological research may be profitably 

 carried on in this part of Her Majesty's dominions. 



It is, however, lamentable to notice how little is being 

 or has been officially done towards preserving a full 

 record of the habits, beliefs, arts, myths, languages and 

 physical characteristics of the countless other tribes 

 and nations more or less uncivilised which are comprised 

 within the limits of the British Empire. At the meeting 

 of this Association held last year at Liverpool it was 



