NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



changes in the topography, escaped investigation. The quality 

 of information demanded has changed with the times; a half cen- 

 tury ago the first requirement was to know the species of animal 

 and plant life, today with these factors well in hand, the relation 

 of these organisms to the interpretation of the broader problems 

 indicated is sought. New York should know more about the 

 contents of its lakes and rivers. No state has been equipped 

 with a greater variety of both owing their origin to more diverse 

 causes. Of the former some are residuums of very ancient drainage 

 ways, many owe their origin to the damming of these drainage 

 ways by the drift dropped from the melting ice sheet, some are 

 the remnants of ancient postglacial lakes which have found or 

 made their outlets; there are some without visible outlet or inlet, 

 some unquestionably kept alive by springs at the bottom, some 

 are high above the sea, others low and draining marsh lands; the 

 Finger lakes and Lake Ontario show indications of marine organ- 

 isms giving the key to their former connection with the sea; and 

 besides these are the underground pools and water ways of the 

 limestone caverns and the singularly interesting problems of their 

 plant and animal life. The proposition to inaugurate such an 

 investigation of the natural waters of the State, though new to 

 New York, is by no means an improper subject for State aid. 

 Illinois and Wisconsin have already achieved important and valu- 

 able results in such work. New York with its greater diversity 

 of subject-matter and the wider scope of its problems ought to 

 do as well. 



We shall renew our request to the Legislature of 1906 for the 

 needed appropriation. 



VI 



REPORT ON ARCHEOLOGY 



Dr W. M. Beauchamp, the distinguished authority on the lore 

 and life of the New York Indians, has continued his work of pre- 

 paring bulletins on topics relating to these subjects. Eleven of 

 these bulletins have, with the additions made during the past 

 year, now been issued and Dr Beauchamp has completed the 

 manuscripts of two more, one on Indian local names in New York, 

 the other relating to ceremonies of marriage and adoption. These 



