514 DISCOVERY OF INDIAN REMAINS, COUNTY NORFOLK. 



the traces of Indian sepulchral rites employed under special circum- 

 stances, and practised with peculiar care. The discovery of the 

 skeleton, as in various other cases, lying directly under the roots 

 of a large tree, naturally suggests the idea that the latter is altogether 

 of subsequent origin and growth, aud hence that its size and age sup- 

 ply some evidence tending to fix the period to which the inhumation 

 may be assigned. It may be, however, that in some cases the grave 

 was hollowed out beneath the roots of a full grown tree, which, 

 would serve alike as a protection to the sacred remains deposited be- 

 neath, and also as a monumental grave-post, on which might be painted 

 the inverted symbols, that told of the departed. If such should prove 

 to have been a practice of Indian sepulture, it will suggest additional 

 caution as to the inferences to be drawn from the size and supposed 

 age of the trees found over such graves ; but there can, under no cir- 

 cumstances, be any doubt as to the one now in question belonging 

 to a period anterior to the settlement of the Norfolk district by the 

 white 7nan. Indeed, Mr. Paul Kane informs me that he has never 

 seen any pottery resembling the specimens found in this grave, in use 

 among any of the tribes of the ]Sorth West, although fragments of 

 such are of frequent occurrence in the district, aud must once have 

 formed a common object of native manufacture there. 



In the Canadian Journal for October, 1S55, * special directions 

 were given with a view to the formation of a Collection of Ancient 

 Crania, illustrative of Canadian Ethnology, and some of these may be 

 recalled with advantage, in the hope of securing a more careful 

 attention to the preservation of such relics as those above described. 

 Collections of this nature are exciting the highest interest among men 

 of science both in Europe and America. A section of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science is devoted to this special 

 department, in connection with Geographical discovery, and recent 

 exploring expeditions have had their attention particularly directed 

 to the same subject. 



When the importance of such evidences of the physical character- 

 istics both of extinct and living races, in relation to historical inves- 

 tigation, as sepulchral remains disclose, is thus becoming so widely 

 appreciated, it appears to be desirable that Canada should not lose 

 the opportunity of contributing her share to the elucidation of 

 ethnological science, afforded by her numerous public works, as well 

 as by the rapid progress in the clearing and settling of wild land. Such 

 a collection of native crania as that with which Dr. Morton has en- 



* Cauadiau Journal, Old Series, Vol. iii. p. 345. 



