746 General Notes. [July, 
have revealed Cherokee and typical Mound-Builder implements; 
and (2) from both these classes of works have been taken brass, 
iron, and glass objects. Specimens of all these classes of finds 
were exhibited at the meeting, About the same time that Pro- 
fessor Thomas read his paper, Professor F. W. Putnam sent us an 
abstract of an account of his recent archeological excursions in 
Wisconsin.and Ohio, given at the meeting of the American An- 
tiquarian Society, October 22. Comparing the two papers, one 
could hardly fail to see that a great change of opinion has taken 
place among our American archzologists concerning the Mou 
- Builders, Indeed, most investigators would advise us to drop the 
capital letters. As long, however, as eminent archeologists are 
troubled to find out who were the Mound-Builders, there is cer- 
tainly a people called the Mound-Builders that remain to be fou 
out, Now it is precisely this lost people to whom the 
letters apply. That those researches have accomplished much 
toward dispelling many ancient illusions, no one will dispute. 
The Mound-Builders probably were not so numerous, so highly 
organized socially, nor so cultivated as many have held. Neither 
were their successors within the area of the United States 
so degraded as they have been made out. The chasm, pei 
so far as culture is concerned, between the two Opies, 
Mound-Builders and the modern Indians, has been bridged wee 
by Thomas Putnam and others. No one has ever seen a tribe 
homeless nomads on this continent. Mr. Morgan's investiga 
followed up more minutely by Mr. Dorsey, have shes 
intricacy of social structure truly astonishing even among t"! 
called nomads. in danget 
Now these discoveries may turn our heads ; and we are tal e 
of running into the other extreme of maintaining living 
Mound-Builders were the ancestors of our modern Indians es 
on the same areas—which cannot yet be proved. That pee . 
be said in its favor, that the attempt to prove it has awake $ 
lively interest in American archæology, and that the ean 
one of legitimate inquiry, no one for a moment can do 
WEST 
ON THE ATHABASCA DISTRICT OF THE CANADIAN jep 
enzi 
* TERRITORY.!—That which gives value to this paper pe : 
pologist is the table of statistics of the Athabasca an 
redskin population, including women and children. 
Great Slave Lake. : 245 
: Chipewyans 332-37 
Fort Resolution, 1863-64 , { Yellow Knives 78 
Fort Rae, 1864...... .. Dog-ribs 
Mackenzie ay | ge” 
Providence, 1871... . Slaves i 
Miike Lake Wwa 8A anaa aa Etcha- gm 
a a S N Eee ee Sold he 
Fort Simpson, 1873 ... e 
: 1883. Nom 
‘By the Rev. Emile Petitot. Map. Proc. Roy. Geog. Sot 
633-655. 
