The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 5: Quebec, 1632-1633
History
The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 5: Quebec, 1632-1633
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Indians of North America -- Canada; Jesuits -- Missions; Jesuits -- North America
Within the first six years after his appointment to the chair of
history, in Toronto University (1854-60), Sir Daniel Wilson made
several visits to the Huron country, to examine village sites and
ossuaries, and his publications concerning the Hurons were numerous,
not only during this period but throughout the rest of his lifetime.
His visits after 1860 appear to have been less frequent, probably
because Taché's survey had covered the ground. Wilson made a special
study of crania; and of his archæological memoirs his best known is
"The Huron Race and its Head-form," in _Canadian Journal_, 2nd series,
vol. xiii. (1871-73), pp. 113-134, in which he compares the Huron skull
with that of the mound-builder.
While Dr. J. C. Taché held the chair of physiology in Laval University,
Quebec (1860-64), he devoted his summer vacations to explorations in
the Huron country, and attempted, by examination of the published
records and maps, to identify the sites of the missions. In this
period he carefully examined some fourteen village sites and sixteen
ossuaries, his identifications of which are adopted by Parkman
and Laverdière. Taché drafted a map of the Huron country, which,
together with the records of his explorations, is in the Museum of
Laval University, besides many Huron relics secured by him. With the
exception of some extracts from letters to the historians just named,
and to a few others, scarcely anything appeared from his pen on the
subject.--See Hamel's sketch of Taché in _Annuaire de l'Université
Laval_ (Quebec, 1894), pp. 98-103.
Prof. Henry Montgomery, of Trinity University, Toronto, visited, during
1876-78, twelve Huron ossuaries. He minutely examined one of these,
as well as several village sites and earthworks, in the immediate
neighborhood of St. Louis, at which town Brébeuf and Lalemant were
captured in 1649. He gave a short account of his investigations in an
article, "Indian Remains in Simcoe and Muskoka," (Toronto _Globe_,
August 3, 1878); and he donated the principal part of his collection of
Huron relics to the Toronto University museum, since destroyed by fire.
Charles A. Hirschfelder, Toronto, in a paper, "Anthropological
Discoveries in Canada" (Toronto _Mail_, Dec. 2, 1882; also,
_Proceedings_ of Brit. Assoc. for Adv. of Science, Montreal, 1884,
pp. 915, 916), described the Huron ossuaries and other remains which
he had examined. He made, in the Huron country and in other parts of
Ontario, a collection of four thousand specimens, which are preserved
in the museum of the Dominion Government at Ottawa. In the course of
his work, he investigated the sites of the missions of St. Joseph, St.
Ignace, and Ste. Marie, on Christian Island.
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