were not periods of twenty-four hours, but eras of great length. These views, which were then new, though now generally admitted, incurred violent opposition and much reproach on the part of some of the examiners. This circumstance and his repugnance for the heated religious controversies of that epoch, led him to renounce the sacred ministry and devote himself wholly to scientific studies. In the autumn of 1819, he repaired to Paris and was received with warm interest by Brongniart, Bournon, Haüy, and Biot. At this epoch he produced a work of great merit on 'the relations of the form of crystals to their optical properties," and on his return to Geneva published new memoirs on mineralogy and optics in the Bibliothéque Universelle, the Mem. de la Soc. de Phys. et d'Hist. Naturelle, and the Bulletin de la Sociétè Philomathique. About 1822, his scientific career was somewhat interrupted by his being chosen to direct the education of the hereditary grand duke of Saxe-Weimar. It was at Weimar that he enjoyed the advantage of meeting the illustrious Goethe, between whom and himself relations of intimacy were soon established. Goethe was not merely a great poet; the natural sciences, and especially botany, were among his favorite studies. He had thus learned to place a just value on the savants whom our city so highly prized, and when I visited him in 1819 was never weary of extolling the labors of de Candolle and Vaucher. The arrival of the young and zealous naturalist of Geneva could not fail to confirm him in these favorable sentiments, and as he had just published a memoir on the Metamorphosis of plants, it was Soret who was charged with making a French translation of it. It will readily be conceived that, in an artistic and literary centre so brilliant as the court of Weimar, the decided taste of our compatriot for poetry and the fine arts received great development. The journals of the time and place contain, accordingly, a multitude of his productions in prose and verse, which attest his success as a writer and poet. Several excursions which he made into Russia and Italy with the prince, his pupil, confirmed these tendencies, and also led him to the study of archeology and numismatics, which he prosecuted with characteristic ardor to the end of his life. Hence we have more than thirty dissertations of his, not only on the coins of Geneva and its environs, but more especially on those of the east, Byzantine, Caliphat, Sossanide, Cufic, &c., published in the Memoires de la Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie de Genève, the Revues Numismatiques Belge et Française, the Revue Archéologique, and the Memoires de la Société Imperiale d'Archéologie de Saint Petersbourg. In this branch of learning he soon acquired a high reputation, and the study of Arabic, which extended even to the publication of a dictionary of that language, contributed to the accuracy of his judgment on the origin and value of oriental coins, the classing and legends of which had been previously so obscure. More than twenty learned societies of foreign countries felt a just pride in numbering him among their associates; but however numerous and flattering these distinctions, they made no impression on the modest and unassuming nature of Soret. (It would be beside the scope of this publication to give a detailed account of the various public offices in which he devoted his talents, experience, and admirable judgment to the service of his country.) In 1836 he had married M'lle Elisa Bertheau, and an only daughter, the worthy offspring of this union, contributed a charm and solace to their mutual existence. The health of our regretted colleague had been good to quite an advanced age, and had permitted him to enjoy in his retreat a life exempt from disquietude and devoted to study; but his last years were overclouded at times by obstinate rheumatic neuralgia, without prejudice, however, to the serene equality of his character, or the vivacity of his intelligence and tastes. Shortly after a visit from his old pupil, the grand-duke of Weimar, an accidental exposure to cold brought on pneumonia, to which malady he succumbed December 8, 1865.

Jean François Montague was born February 15, 1784, at Vaudoy, department of the Seine-et-Marne. At the age of fourteen he took part in the expedition to Egypt as assistant helmsman, and his precocious intelligence as well

as his amiability of character soon procured him protectors and friends among the French savants who composed the Institute of Egypt. This circumstance decided his tastes and vocation. At his return to France he applied himself with zeal to medical studies, and in 1809 was nominated chief physician to the Neapolitan army, under the government of Murat. Thenceforth he joined to his public functions the study of the natural sciences, and particularly of botany. Cryptogamy, and especially the cellular plants, till then much neglected, offered to him a vast field of exploration. Frequent voyages and a widely extended correspondence enabled him to publish in the Annales de Botanique and the Annales des Sciences Naturelles a great number of memoirs and articles on the cellular cryptogams, the lichens, the champignons, the algæ, &c., of Europe, America, and Oceanica He made also a remarkable application of his researches to the maladies of the silk-worm, the vine and the potato. In 1842 he was nominated an honorary member of our society, and in 1852 was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, in place of Professor Achille Richard. An indefatigable and conscientious laborer, Dr. Montague was one of those rare personages who have preserved to extreme age all their mental vigor, and who have honored humanity alike by the qualities of the intellect and the heart. He died at Paris, January 5, 1866.

Elections. The precarious health of Professor Macaire, not permitting him to attend our sessions regularly, had led him to decline the place of member in ordinary, but his colleagues, not wishing to be deprived of the benefits of his learning and experience, and remembering his distinguished services to the society, have prevailed on him to preserve the title of member emeritus. M. Edouard Pictet has been elected member in ordinary, and MM. Boureart, Laharpe, and Audeoud, as associates at large, so that the number of our emeriti is now two, that of members in ordinary forty, that of honorary members sixtyfour, and that of associates at large thirty-nine. In the session of January, Professor Favre was proclaimed vice-president, and subsequently president for the ensuing year; M. Philippe Plantamour was named treasurer for a year, replacing M. Favre; Professor Marignac has been re-elected for three years as secretary charged with the correspondence; lastly, MM. Wartmann and Humbert have been appointed members of the committee of publication.

Permit me, in concluding, to recall the kind and delicate sentiments which I cannot but presume to have dictated my nomination to the presidency. Assuredly. I cannot attribute the honor conferred on me to any personal merit of mine, either as physicist or naturalist; neither could my medical specialty have been an adequate title; it is to be placed chiefly to the account of your good will in my behalf; but it must be regarded, also, as an acknowledgment which you desired to render to the memory of my venerable father, who, after having been one of the founders of the Society of Physics and Natural History, was one of the principal promoters of the Helvetic Society of the Natural Sciences, encouraged as he was by the support of his honorable colleagues of Geneva. It was, in effect, by the aid of the members of our society and of the honored pastor, Wyttenbach, of Berne, that he succeeded in constituting, in 1815, the nomadic and fraternal association of the Swiss naturalists, which has subsequently served as a model or those international scientific congresses which have drawn more closely the bonds of union among the savants of Europe. The year 1865 was the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation, and by your presence at Mornex, in the cradle of the Society, you have given a new sanction to that commemorative festival.

It only remains for me to thank you, my cherished and highly esteemed colleagues, for the zealous co-operation which you have never ceased to accord to me as president, a co-operation which has rendered my task as easy as it was agreeable, and to express my ardent hope that our society may continue to be distinguished by its scientific zeal and the inappreciable harmony which has always prevailed among its members.

NOTES ON THE TINNEH OR CHEPEWYAN INDIANS

OF BRITISH AND RUSSIAN AMERICA.

1. The Eastern Tinneh, from a MS., by BERNARD R. Ross, Esq., honorable Hudson's Bay Company.

2. The Loucheux Indians, by WILLIAM L. HARDISTY, Esq., honorable Hudson's Bay Company.

3. The Kutchin tribes, by STRACHAN JONES, Esq., honorable Hudson's Bay Company.

COMMUNICATED BY GEORGE GIBBS.

THE above tribes are embraced in the Athabascan group in Mr. Gallatin's classification of the Indian tribes, (Trans. Am. Eth. Soc., vol. ii,) but that name, according to Mr. Ross, is a foreign word, applicable only to a particular locality. The name of Chepewyan, given to the eastern tribes by most of the early writers, is merely a compound Cree word relating to dress. Sir John Richardson (Boat Voyage through Rupert's Land) adopts, and upon a more correct and philosophical principle, the name Tin-neh, which Mr. Ross says, though given in the vocabularies for "man,' means rather "the people." It seems to be the appellation which each tribe applies to itself, other branches being distinguished by a prefix relating to locality, or some peculiarity of dress or appearance. Thus, while the Chepewyans call themselves Tin-neh, they call the "Slaves" Tess-cho-tinneh, or the people of the Great river, (Mackenzie's.)

This family, the most northern in America excepting the Eskimo, is, at the same time, the most widely distributed, its range extending from the shores of Hudson's bay to the Pacific, where it is represented on Cook's inlet by the Kenai and other allied tribes. Several tribes, known collectively as the Tahkali, Tácully, or Carriers, inhabit the upper waters of Fraser river, extending south to Fort Alexandria, in about latitude 52° 30'. Near the mouth of the Columbia two small bands, now nearly extinct, inhabited the wooded country on either side of the river, and others are located on the Umpqua, Rogue river, and the coast of southern Oregon, and on the Trinity or south fork of the Klamath, in northern California. Finally, the same race, as shown by affinity of language, appears in Arizona, New Mexico, and Chihuahua, under the names of Navajoes and Apaches. The papers mentioned at the head of this article, and which follow, all refer to the northern branches, but do not include those of the Pacific coast.

Mr. Ross divides the northern portion of this great family into—

I. The eastern or Tinneh tribes proper.

II. The mountain tribes.

III. The western, consisting, so far as British America is concerned, of the Tahkalis.

IV. The northern, including all the Kutchin or Loucheux tribes.

It is to the first of these that the portion of his own notes here given refers. Mr. Hardisty's and Mr. Jones's relate to the last.

1. THE EASTERN TINNEH.-Ross.

PHYSICAL CHARACTER.

The eastern Tinneh are of middle stature, squarely and strongly built. Although tall men are not uncommon in some of the tribes, the extremes in either direction are far from numerous. The lowest adult whom I have seen was four feet four inches in height, and the tallest, six feet eix inches, the former a Slave, and the latter a Yellow Knife. As a whole they are tolerably fleshy, and their weight may be averaged at 140 pounds. The crania of these people are very large, with a tolerably good facial angle, the forehead rather high, and the skull elongated towards the occiput in most cases. The females appear to have the largest heads, and those of both sexes are covered with a matted profusion of black, coarse, and straight hair. They are, generally, long-bodied, with short, stout limbs, but without any disproportion between the lengths of the upper and The extremities are small and well-formed, the hands thick, with short, tapering fingers, offering a strong contrast to the narrow, long, and bony hands of the Crees, and resembling a good deal in this particular the Eskimo of the Arctic circle. The most distinguishing feature in the race is the breadth of their faces between the cheek bones; this, with a high and rather narrow forehead and elongated chin, gives them a pear-like appearance. They are possessed of considerable bodily strength, of which, as the Hudson's Bay Company employ them as boatmen, there are excellent opportunities of judging. They can carry 200 pounds, in a strap passed over the forehead, without difficulty, but they are, as a whole, considerably under the average of the European servants in endurance and strength.

lower ones.

There is no particular cast of features other than the large and high cheek bones. Large mouths are universal; the teeth are white and regular, even to old age; the chins are commonly pointed, but cleft ones are not unusual among the Yellow Knives; the usual description of noses are the snub and bottle, with a slight sprinkling of aquiline; the ears, generally large, are placed well up towards the crown of the head; sparse mustaches and beard are sometimes seen, but whiskers are unknown; the eyes are mostly of a very dark brown hazel, varied with lighter, but never clear tints of the same color, and with black; they are often placed obliquely in the head, and although there is no general rule in the case, I think this form is oftener met with among the northern than among the more southern tribes. The prevailing complexion may, with propriety, be said to be of a dirty yellowish ochre tinge, ranging from a smoky brown to a tint as fair as that of many half caste Europeans. The color of the skin is, in all cases, opaque, and its texture close and smooth. In a few instances I have seen the blood through the cheeks, giving a vermilion color to that part of the face. Cases of corpulency, though the rule in childhood, are very rare in old age. The women, if anything, are uglier than the men; of smaller stature, and in old age become positively hideous. The mammæ become pendulous and large though they never, to my knowledge, attain the almost fabulous dimensions that I have heard are not uncommon among the Carrier women.

Nature certainly does more than art for the rearing of the children of these people. "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb," and causes them to thrive under numerous disadvantages. Immediately after birth, without washing, the infant is laid naked on a layer of moss in a bag made of leather, and lined with hare skins. If it be summer, the latter are dispensed with. This bag is thes securely laced, restraining the limbs in natural positions, and leaving the child freedom to move the head only. In this phase of its existence, it resemb strongly an Egyptian mummy. Cradles are never used; but this machine, called a moss bag," is an excellent adjunct to the rearing of children up to a certain age, and has become almost, if not universally, adopted in the families of the

Hudson's Bay Company's employés. The natives retain the use of the bag to a late period, say until the child passes a year, during which time it is never taken out except to change the moss. To this practice, continued to such an age, I attribute the turned in toes and rather crooked legs of many of these Indians. A child is not weaned until another takes its place, if the mother has milk to give it, and it is no unusual thing for an Indian woman of these tribes to suckle a child three or four years old, even with a baby at her other breast at the time. Respecting the food of infants, the routine is as follows: If the mother has milk they suck so long as she yields it; otherwise, mashed fish, chewed dried meat, or any other nutritious substance that can be had from a not very extended variety is given. A curious and superstitious custom obtains among the Slave, Hare, and Dogrib tribes, of not cutting the nails of female infants till they are four years of age. Their reason for this is, that if they did so earlier the child would, when arrived at womanhood, turn out lazy, and be unable to embroider well in porcupine quill-work, an art which these Indians are very skilful in, and are justly proud of. Another extraordinary practice is their giving no nutriment to infants for the first four days after birth, in order, as they say, to render them capable of enduring starvation in after life, an accomplishment which they are very likely to stand often in need of.

It is difficult to determine exactly the age of puberty. In boys it commences about twelve. Indeed, they endeavor, as soon as they can, to pay their addresses to the sex, and marry, generally, at from sixteen to twenty years of age. Το fix the period for girls is still more difficult. They marry sometimes, but not often, at ten, and have their menses about thirteen. The women are capable of bearing children from fourteen to forty-five, a long portion of their lives, but in it very few infants are produced. Families on an average contain three children, including deaths, and ten is the greatest number I have seen. In that instance the natives found it so unusual that they called the father "Hon-nen-na-bé-ta," or the Father of Ten. Twins I have heard of but once. The proportion of births is rather in favor of females, a natural necessity, as it is the women among these tribes who have the shortest lease of life, and there is from various causes a much greater mortality among the girls than among the boys. The period of utero gestation is rather shorter than in Europeans, and seldom exceeds the nine months. Premature deliveries are very rare, and the women experience but little pain in child-birth, a few hours repose, after the occurrence, being sufficient

to restore nature.

The duration of life is, on an average, short. Many children die at an early age, and there are few instances of the great longevity that occurs not unfrequently in more temperate climates. Rarely does one of the Tinneh reach the three score years and ten" allotted to man, though an instance or two of passing this age has occurred within my own knowledge. A Slave woman died at Fort Simpson, in the autumn of 1861, who had already borne three children when Sir Alexander McKenzie, in 1789, descended the river bearing his name. Supposing that she had married at sixteen, and was confined once every three years, a high average for this people, she would have been ninety-seven years of age at the time of her death. For some years prior to her demise she was perfectly bed-ridden, and sadly neglected by her relatives, who evidently fancied that she had troubled them long enough. She lay solitary and forsaken in a miserable camp, composed of a rude shelter and bed of pine brush, her only covering a attered caribou-skin robe. Such was the malignity of her disposition, even in ‘articulo mortis," that she reviled at nearly every adult, and struck with a stick it all the children and dogs that passed by her den.

The Tinneh are far from a healthy race. The causes of death proceed rather rom weakness of constitution and hereditary taint than from epidemic diseases, hough, when the latter do come, they make great havoc. Want of proper and egular nutriment and exposure in childhood in all probability undermine their