219 
mate period of a ruin throuj 2 ;h the presence of objects imported from 
a country whose history is already known, as when we fiml in Cretan 
house-sites ornaments that were ]:)eculiar to well-established dynas- 
ties of Egypt. But Canada, like the rest of tlie American continent, 
seems to haye been entirely cut off from the ciyili/ation centi’es of 
the Old World until the end of the fifteenth century,^ and any 
foreign objects its soil contains are either intrusions from the 1 nited 
States, where their origin and date are hardly less obscure, or else 
of recent introfluction, like the Chinese coins that are occasionally 
unearthed near A'ancouyer and other places, and the bronze figurine 
from northern India that was dug up at Kincolith, on Xass river, 
some twenty-fiye years ago.- Tlie only possible starting point, then, 
for the elucidation of the earlier liistory of our aboiigines is the 
appeai’ance of Eui'opeans on the scene, of Jacques Cartier on the east 
coast in 1534, and of Russian, Spanish, and English miyigators and 
fur-traders on the west coast in the eighteenth century. For Euro- 
peans brought iron tools and weapons that instantly replaced most 
of the stone implements preyiously in use, and arclneological sites 
from this and subsequent ])eriods inyariably reflect the change. 
In the absence of historically fixed dates for pre-European times 
the Canadian arclueologist must fall back on the slciuler eyidence 
afforded by changes in the geological or biological conditions. Thus 
in some parts of Canada, notably in the Arctic, the coast-line has risen 
thirty or forty feet since certain dwelling-sites were deserted, and 
seyeral inches of soil haye accumulated oyer their ruins. Such con- 
ditions indicate the la]:>se of many centuries, but unfortunately we 
cannot determine the rates at whicli the coast-line rose or the soil 
accumulated, and, therefore, cannot measure the interyal in years. 
To find one ruin resting dii’ectly on top of anotlier (as in so many 
Mediterranean sites) is extremely rare; but proyided that soil, yege- 
tation, and other conditions are similar, we may logically assume 
that a site buried eighteen inches beneath the ground is older than 
one buried only twelve inches, and by this criterion we can occasion- 
ally determine the sequence of remains within a restricted area. 
1 The tran.'fitory visits of the Xoiseitieii to the «'ast coast of Canada alioiil tlie year ItlOO A.D, appear 
to have left no impression on tlie aborigines. 
-Boas. I-’.; “A Bronze Figurine from British Cohimliia”; Bull., Am. Mns. Xat. H’ist.. vol. xiv. 
pp. 51-52 (1001). 
