PROVINCIAL MUSEUM REPORT 



FOE THE TEAR 1917. 



Since the last Annual Report of the Provincial Museum it has been found that it was still 

 necessary that the strictest economy must be exercised in the maintenance of public institutions, 

 expending moneys only where it was absolutely necessary, and still keep up to the objects of 

 the " Provincial Museum Act," viz. : — 



(a.) To secure and preserve specimens illustrating the natural history of the Province : 



(6.) To collect anthropological material relating to the aboriginal races of the Province: 



(c.) To obtain information respecting the natural sciences relating particularly to the 



natural history of the Province, and to increase and diffuse knowledge regarding 



the same. 



Although quite a large number of specimens have been added to the collection during the 

 year, little actual field-work was undertaken, as at the usual time to start field-work it was 

 not possible to secure the desired assistants. 



However, Dr. C. F. Newcombe, who has always been only too willing to assist in building 

 up the collections of the Provincial Museum, offered his services voluntarily, and accompanied 

 the Director on a trip to the Bella Coola District in the month of June. 



While in Bella Coola special efforts were made to collect the flora of the district, as this 

 was particularly needed in mapping out the distribution of the different species of plants in 

 this Province. Quite a large representative collection was secured and prepared, of which 

 special mention is made in the botanical report. A number of plants were also collected at 

 Ocean Falls while waiting there for a steamer to AMctoria. 



Advantage was also taken of the information conveyed to the Director by Mr. W. H. 

 Gibson, the missionary at Bella Coola, that he thought it would be possible to secure a number 

 of old ceremonial masks, which had been in possession of the tribe for a great number of years, 

 from an old Indian chief, " Captain Schooner." 



Dr. Neweonibe and the Director paid several visits to the old reserve to see the old chief, 

 and after using a great deal of diplomacy and secrecy (which is necessary when dealing with 

 Indians in such matters, especially with chiefs), these ceremonial masks were secured with 

 their stories and legends. 



In the month of April the Department was fortunate in purchasing from Lieutenant F. C. 

 Swannell. B.C.L.S., of Victoria, a collection of Indian relics from the Northern Interior of the 

 Province, from which locality the Museum had very little material ; these specimens belonged 

 to a number of tribes, which, like others, are fast disappearing. Lieutenant Swannell had 

 collected these specimens several years ago while out with survey parties in the northern 

 portions of the Province. 



Two very valuable collections of anthropological material were donated to the Museum, one 

 by Mrs. Gertrude A. Croucher, Tale, B.C., in memory of her much respected husband, the late 

 Rev. Charles Croucher. This collection, numbering 158 specimens, was collected by Rev. Mr. 

 Croucher many years ago, and has been much coveted by a number of the museums of America ; 

 but the late reverend gentleman was loyal to this Province, and would not allow his collection 

 to go out of British Columbia, and always said that at his death the specimens were to be 

 donated to the Provincial Museum at Victoria, so that they would be accessible to students in 

 the study of the life-history of the aboriginal races of this North-west Coast of America. 



The other anthropological collection, numbering eight specimens, was donated by Mrs. 

 Blanche Dewdney, in memory of her late husband, the Honourable Edgar Dewdney, P.C., 

 ex-Lieutenant-Governor of the North-west Territory and ex-Lieutenant-Governor of the Province 

 of British Columbia. In this collection will be found a valuable set of bone gambling-dice, with 

 sticks as counters, used by the Kootenay Indians. Specimens similar to these are seldom seen 

 in any collection of anthropology. 



Early in the month of October, Professor John Macoun, F.R.S.C., Naturalist to the 

 Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, who now resides at Sidney, B.C., received permission 

 from the Director of the Geological Survey, Mr. R. G. McConnell, to present to the Provin- 



