PO3)] + 15 [Pb Cl + 3 (3 PbO, VO3)]. Hence it appears that PO3 and VO3 are isomorphous.

ERRATUM. In the note on Graptolites (p. 388) for Bryoza read Bryozoa.

The Curator of the Institute will feel greatly obliged by the loan of any specimens of Graptolites or Trilobites in the possession of members.

ETHNOLOGY AND ARCHEOLOGY.

E. J. C.

INDIAN REMAINS.

The principal facts contained in the following notice of the discovery of Indian remains in the vicinity of Orillia, County of Simcoe, accompanied with tropical marine shells, and copper and other relics, are derived from an account in a recent number of the Toronto Globe. Indian mounds have been repeatedly opened in that neighbourhood; and we have in our possession crania and sepulchral relics found in one of these, which was explored in 1854. One of the skulls betrays unmistakeable evidence of the stroke of the tomahawk with which the old Indian met his death. The relics in the present case, however, have been found in hollows to which it would appear the term Burrow is applied: probably as a distinctive variation from that of the old Saxon Barrow, or Sepulchral Mound.

"About six miles from Orillia the North River crosses the Coldwater road, which runs on the old portage between Lake Couchiching and the Georgian Bay, and forms a natural valley with low heights on each side. On the northern height, about a quarter of a mile from the road, an Indian burrow was found last spring. Perhaps," adds the writer from whom we quote, "our readers may understand by a burrow a raised mound of a peculiar shape, but such is not the case. It is merely a slightly depressed hollow, of an oval shape, about ten feet in length, and eight in breadth. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish it from the depression caused by the roots of a fallen tree. The discoverers of the one in question, on removing the surface earth, came upon layers of bones in various stages of decay and near the bottom they found a number of copper kettles, two large shells, some beads made of bone, and a quantity of hair. No pipes or tomahawks were found. The number of dead interred there must have been at least from 150 to 200, as one individual counted no less than 70 sculls that were thrown out, exclusive of those left in the burrow. The kettles are of superior workmanship, of various sizes, in excellent preservation, and tastefully formed; all of them have had iron handles, some of which are much corroded or entirely gone. A few have rims of iron, very much decayed around their tops."

Some of the beads have also been described to us as of glass, coarsely made; and the shells appear to have been specimens of the large tropical pyrulæ, repeatedly found along the shores of our northern fresh-water lakes, furnishing unmistakeable evidence of an intercourse carried on with the Gulf of Mexico, or the regions of Central America. In the present case the accompanying relics appear to indicate no very remote date for the sepulchral depository. From the iron rims and handles of the vessels, and the glass beads, they must at least be assigned to a period subsequent to the intercourse of the Indians with Europeans;

and the remains of some of their fur wrappings indicated a much shorter interval since their deposition.

The writer in the Globe, while hesitating to offer any very decided opinion, is inclined to believe that the remains are those of warriors, slain in battle. The chief grounds for this view are stated as follows:

1. "In the spring, a skeleton was found at a short distance from the burrow, with every evidence of having been struck down by a tomahawk.

2. The height, where the remains were found, is one admirably fitted for a battle field.

3. The bodies seem to have been hastily interred. Most of them had on their ordinary dresses. A few remains of these were found with the fur yet perfect, the skins neatly sewn, and the fringe-like ornaments peculiar to Indian dresses, still distinct and undecayed. The corpses appear to have been hastily thrown in, and little or no earth thrown over them, as the only covering found over them was that formed by the accumulation of leaves that have fallen since their interment."

The relics, however, with which these human remains were accompanied seem irreconcileable with this view of the case. There was not only an absence of weapons of war,-which we cannot suppose would have been entirely removed when such objects as copper kettles, and the cumbrous tropical shells were left; but the latter are not objects with which a war party would be likely to burden themselves. The so-called burrow was more probably an Ossuary, into which the remains of the dead were promiscuously heaped, in accordance with known Indian customs, after the final honors and sacrifices had been rendered to the deceased. One of these Ossuaries, in the Township of Beverly, from which specimens of the same class of tropical shells were procured, has been noticed in this Journal, (Old Series, vol. III, p. 156.) The depression by which the locality of these recently discoved relics was indicated, is no doubt mainly ascribable to the decay of the human remains interred there. Dr. Schoolcraft speaks of some of these cemeteries as Sepulchral trenches or Ossuaries, in which the bones of entire villages would seem to have been deposited;" and the appearance of hasty and partial inhumation described above has been noted in other examples.

The locality where these relics have been found appears to present a rich field for investigation; and it is gratifying to find such discoveries meeting with the attention evinced on this occasion. The narrator of the above facts observes: "The elevated ground that lies between Lakes Simcoe and Huron, seems to have been, in former ages, a favorite home of the Red Man. Abounding with numerous valleys, and studded with hills of various sizes, it has formed an admirable field for those sudden surprises and those stealthy attacks that distinguish Indian warfare. From its central position, it was probably a battle field for the hostile tribes residing in Canada, on the one hand, and the north-western nations on the other. This advantageous position of the district was discerned by the military genius of Sir John Colborne, who, with his wonted sagacity, foresaw that only amid those glens and wooded heights could a successful resistance be made to an invasion from the neighboring States. He accordingly matured a scheme for settling the district with military colonists, and establishing a chain of Indian settlements along the line of portage that connects Lake Couchiching and Georgian Bay. Various circumstances, however, prevented his plan from being successfully

carried out. This whole section of country is studded with Indian remains. In many places Indian burrows have been discovered, containing the remains of dead bodies, pottery, copper kettles, pipes, and other articles peculiar to the Red man. And a few years ago, a farmer in the township of Medonte found the remains of a small manufactory of pottery, in which were utensils of all kinds and sizes in various states of preparation. The writer of this has visited the spot. It lay on the side of a rocky eminence, and resembled one of those limekilns so common throughout the Province." As no knowledge of the potter's art seems to have survived among our north-western tribes, an account of the discovery of this native potter's kiln with a minute notice of its contents, and the condition in which they were found, if still recoverable, would be well worth putting on record.

SANDWICH ISLANDERS.

In the Montreal Medical Chronicle of June last, an interesting communication on "Diseases peculiar to the Sandwich Islands," from the pen of Dr. John Rae, a Canadian physician resident there, supplies some curious particulars relative to the physical idiosyncracies developed among the natives by contact with Europeans. Many of these are cutaneous diseases, but accompanied with peculiar symptoms, painfully suggestive of their origin from the vices of Europeans. One of these diseases, termed by the natives the puupuu, manifests its presence by red boils appearing at various parts, sometimes over the whole body. These ultimately form into fleshy prominences, projecting a quarter of an inch from the surface, and frequently an inch in diameter, which break and discharge. But what struck Dr. Rae as peculiar, when treating some of these cases, at Kaoli Hana, Mani, he thus describes:

"I was here first led to remark the extraordinary vigor with which the renovation of skin and cuticle goes on among this race. Although, in these cases, the original skin had been completely destroyed, yet, in a month or two, the scars were scarcely perceptible, being only noticeable, on a cursory view, by a more polished surface, and requiring a close inspection to trace the line of demarcation between the old and newly organized substance."

We shall not follow Dr. Rae into the purely professional details of his subject, but some of his observations on the changes produced on the natives by "the breaking up of the old order of things," consequent on European intrusion, are possessed of a wider interest. After referring to the increasing frequency of prevailing maladies, and to the effects resulting from a change of diet, consequent on the partial adoption of European habits; he adds the following remarks in reference to the influence of dress, which admit of a very extensive application:

"Again, the general adoption of something like the dress of civilized men, seems to have produced a change in their habit of body, which, physiologically, and perhaps ethnologically, is worthy of notice. Their hue has less of red and more of black in it. It would seem, that, when the surface of the body is exposed to the skyey influences, there is a greater rush of blood to the minute external vessels, reddening the hue. The whole person becomes, in a measure, face. May not this be one cause of the change of complexion which to a great extent has taken place in the Celtic and Germanic races? We know from Cæsar and Taci. tus, that even in the severe winters of the Germany and France of those days, the hardy natives scorned much encumbrance of clothing as a mark of effeminacy,

and that fair hair and blue eyes were universal; cœrulei oculi rutilæque comæ. The present Gaul is generally swart, and so are very many Germans; and civilization a thousand years since gave these a general and warm covering to the whole person. However that may be, the alteration in hue, which I have noted, is a fact of which I have no doubt. It has been accompanied by a greater susceptibility to cold, and to the inroads of those diseases which that susceptibility produces."

D. W.

CHEMISTRY.

Chinoline.-Greville Williams has published in extenso his very beautiful researches upon the products of the distillation of cinchonine. Formerly chinoline was supposed to be the sole product, but Williams has shewn that it is a complex body containing two or more homologous alkaloids. He has now examined various chlorides, oxysalts and double salts of chinoline, also the action of æthylic, methylic and amylic iodides upon it, by which substitution bases are produced. Moreover, he has proved that lepidine, which accompanies chinoline, is also to be found in coaltar, and he has succeeded in obtaining æthylo lepidine. He has also discovered a new base in coal tar, which he names cryptidine. These three are homologous nitrile bases. Chinoline, C18H 7N,

Lepidine, C20H 9N,

Cryptidine, C22H11N.

Iodine. Kletzinsky denies the assertion of Chatiu, that the absence of iodine from the air, is one of the causes of goitre and cretinism, inasmuch as he found no iodine in the air of Vienna, which is free from those complaints. This experiment was continued over a period of four months, and the potash-solution, through which the air was passed, was found to contain no iodine, but unmistakable traces of nitric acid. Ch. G. 329.

Test for Iodine.-Knop substitutes bromate for the iodate of potassa, employed by Liebig in testing for iodine, in those cases where a reducing agent, such as sulphurous acid, is present, by which of course iodine would be separated from the iodate. An excess of the bromate must be avoided, as the blue colour is destroyed. Ch. G. 332.

Nitric Oxide.-A. Brüning has examined the action of nitric oxide upon anhydrous sulphuric acid, and arrives at the conclusion that the nitric oxide absorbs one equivalent of oxygen from the sulphuric acid, forming sulphurous acid, and nitrous acid, which latter then unites with two equivalents of sulphuric acid, forming the solid substance described by Prevostaye and Rose, and which the latter considered to be a compound of nitric oxide. Ch. G. 332.

Fluorescence.-Von Babo and Müller have observed that the flame of sulphuretted hydrogen has remarkable power in producing fluorescence, as exhibited by a solution of quinine, an ætherial solution of chlorophyll, green and violet crystals of fluor-spar, and more especially by the yellowish-green uranium glass. Ch. G. 329.

Sulphate of Nickel.-Marignac has found that the quadratic crystals of sulphate

of nickel contain six and not seven atoms of water. At a temperature of 59°— 68° F., he obtained rhombic crystals with 7 H O, at 86°-104° F., quadratic crystals with 6 H O, and at 1220-158° F., monoclinometric crystals with 6 H O. These remain transparent above 104° F.; at ordinary temperatures, they gradually become opaque, without loss of weight. Dimorphism, therefore, exists in the salt with 6 H O, but not in that with 7 H O.

From solutions of sulphate of magnesia at 158° F. of sulphate of zinc at 131° F., and of sulphate of cobalt at 122° F., he obtained compounds analogous in composition, and isomorphous with the above mentioned monoclinometric crystals. Ch. G. 329.

Silver.-Deville finds that silver is rapidly dissolved by hydriodic acid with evolution of hydrogen, especially if heat be applied; the iodide separates in large hexagonal prisms; palladium is also attacked, but slowly. Gold and platinum do not evolve any sensible amount of hydrogen, but are gradually dissolved. while all the common metals are dissolved with remarkable energy by hydriodic acid. Deville is inclined to class silver with mercury or even with lead.

Sesqui-Salts of Manganese.-Carius prepares the anhydrous sulphate of the sesquioxide, by forming an artificial brown oxide, by passing chlorine through a solution of carbonate of soda, in which proto-carbonate of manganese is suspended. This, when dry, is triturated with sulphuric acid into a thin paste. The mixture being heated in an oil bath, oxygen is evolved, but at 230° F., the evolution stops, and a violet gray mass is produced. At 270° the green sulphate is formed. It can be washed with nitric acid, and heated to 266° to drive off excess, and is then pure. It is very easily decomposable, and can only be kept in closed tubes, By absorption of water, hydrated sesquioxide is produced. It is not soluble in diluted sulphuric acid, unless some of the proto-salt be present, when it readily dissolves, forming a red solution.

Antimony.-Rose mentions some experiments by Weber to determine the atomic weight of antimony, the terchloride was precipitated by sulphuretted hydrogen, and the chlorine determined as usual; unless tartaric acid be used, a little chlorine remains with the sulphide. In this way, the number 1508.67 was obtained, agreeing closely with that of Schneider, viz., 1503. Rose adds that many years ago he determined the atomic weight from the two chlorides, and found 1513.14 and 1508.5.

Non-precipitation of Metals.-Martin has made some experiments on the influence of strong hydrochloric acid in preventing the precipitation of metals by sulphuretted hydrogen. Lead, cadmium, antimony, tin, mercury, bismuth, copper,, and silver, are not wholly precipitated unless a large quantity of water be employed. Lead requires the smallest quantity of acid to retain it in solution, and the other metals in larger quantity, in the above order. The portion of the chlorides of copper, mercury, and bismuth, which remains dissolved, is converted into sub-chloride.

Arsenic Acid.-E. Kopp having prepared large quantities of this substance as a substitute for tartaric acid in the discharge style of calico-printing, was led to examine the different hydrates. As 05 + 4 aq. separates from the gently evaporated solution in large crystals, heated to 202° F., a creamy substance, consisting of little needles, is formed, which is the terhydrate, As 05 + aq. If the solution be heated up to 284° or 356° F., rectangular prisms are formed, they are