462 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



merits of pottery were discovered, improving in manufacture as they 

 approached the upper strata. The buildings were formed of the 

 sandstone of the district, which splits readily into layers. The 

 bone remains were those of a small cetacean, the ox, horse, red deer, 

 wild boar, and goat. ~No sheep bones had been found, but those 

 of the dog, fox, cormorant, solan goose, and of the extinct great auk 

 (Alca impenuis) ; but the chief food of the inhabitants must have 

 been shell fish. There were no fishing implements, and the bones 

 of fish were rare. Mr. Laing described the opening of a burial place 

 situated near the mounds. This contained several stone coffins, 

 some not more than five feet four inches long, without implements ; 

 others six feet and upwards in length ; these latter contained, in 

 addition to the skeletons, numerous rude stone implements of the 

 simplest kind. Mr. Laing considered that the remains belonged to 

 the early Stone period, and that the race were part of the primitive 

 population of the country, who had no intercourse with the inhabi- 

 tants of other districts, where flints or harder stones abounded. 

 The skulls exhibited showed two distinct types — the better developed 

 being similar to the ordinary ancient British skulls, the lower re- 

 sembling those of the Australians of the present day. These skulls 

 were subsequently described by Professor Huxley at the Ethnolo- 

 gical Society. One of them, that of a female, being regarded by him 

 as the most degraded European skull hitherto discovered. In the 

 discussion which ensued after Professor Huxley's remarks, the 

 opinion generally expressed was adverse to the extreme antiquity 

 which Mr. Laing attributed to these remains. 



EOYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.— Nov. 28. 



New Route to British Columbia. — The first paper read was a 

 narrative of an " Expedition across the Rocky Mountains into 

 British Columbia, by the Yellow Head or Leather Pass," by Vis- 

 count Milton and Dr. Cheadle. Lord Milton and his companion 

 set forth, in the spring of 1 862, with a view to discover a practicable 

 route, through British territory, which should be free from the risks 

 attendant on a road too near the United States boundary. The 

 Leather Pass, which lies in the same latitude as the gold-district of 

 Cariboo, had been formerly used by the voyageurs of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company ; but the route from this to the settled parts of British 

 Columbia by the head waters of the Thompson River had never yet 

 been trodden by a European. The country between the Red River 

 and the Rocky Mountains is extremely fertile ; rich prairies, ready 

 for the plough, being interspersed with woods rich in timber for 

 building and fencing. Coal-beds and ironstone exist in several 

 places. The road beyond Edmonton was merely a pack trail. Dur- 

 ing three weeks the party progressed slowly over the spongy and 

 boggy soil of the primeval forest, which stretches for 300 miles 

 from Lake St. Ann to the foot of the mountains. They obtained 

 their first view of the range on arriving at the banks of the Atha- 

 basca River, which emerges from the heart of the mountains 

 through a narrow gorge, and on reaching the plains expands into a 



