40 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Geological .Survey, entited "Catalogue of the Mammalia of 

 Canada, exclusive of the Cetacea." 



Mr. Chamberlain read a paper by Rev. John McLean, M.A., 

 of Alberta, on " The Blackfoot Sun Dance." 



Mr. A. Harvey referred to the similarity between the cere- 

 monies described in the paper and some of the customs of the 

 Greeks and Romans and our own ancestors. 



Mr. T. B. Browning had seen one of these Sun dances 

 by the Crees, a very large one. There were no less than ten or 

 twelve chiefs and about 140 tepees. The ceremonies were sub- 

 stantially the same as those described by Mr. McLean. He 

 saw four undergoing the torture. They were smeared with 

 a white chalk clay. When strung up they rested wholly on 

 the heel, and skipping round described about the third of a 

 circle, the chiefs cheering them on. He witnessed another 

 ceremony at the same time, that of adoption. A medicine 

 man brought forward a little girl, crossed his hands over her, 

 took her from her mother and handed her over to the man 

 who adopted her. His informant, a half breed, told him that 

 the medicine man called upon the gods to witness the rite. 



TWENTY-SECOND MEETING. 



Twenty-second Meeting, 14th April, 1888, the President in 

 the chair. 



Donations and exchanges since last meeting, 51. 



Oliver R. Avison, M.D., was elected a member. 



Mr. W. A. Douglass, B.A., read a paper entitled " A Scheme 

 of Political Economy." 



Mr. W. Houston, M.A., read a paper on " The Relation 

 betw^een Political Science and Practical Politics." 



