Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/474

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464 Notes and News sented a paper on the linguistic stocks of South America, and Professor Franz Boas of New York discussed the ethnological problems of Canada. The historical work of the Congress may be divided into two classes, the one relating to the native races of America and their origin and history, and the other to the European discovery and occupation of the New World. In the second class the number of papers was com- paratively small. Professor Stevenson of Rutgers College discussed the comparative fallacies of the early cartography of the New World, and Dr. Jules Humbert of Bordeaux gave a paper, drawn from archival sources, on Spanish efforts at pacific colonization in Venezuela and Guiana and the reasons of their failure. Historical papers on the native races of America were more numerous. Amongst them was one by Professor Thomas of the Bureau of American Ethnology, on primary Indian migrations in North America. Of a less general nature were the papers by Abbe A. Gosselin of Laval University on the In- dians of the Mississippi from 1698 to 1708, and by Baron de Villiers du Terrage of Paris on the Indians of the Mississippi and Missouri Valleys in 1758. The former paper was based on reports of missionaries pre- served in the Seminary at Quebec, and the latter on the report in the French colonial archives by Kerlerec, governor of Louisiana. Con- cerning the Indians of Canada, papers were given by Dr. J. Edmond Roy of Levis on their principles of government, and by Abbe P. Rous- seau of Montreal on the Hochelagas. The fifth meeting of the Bibliographical Society of America was held in Providence on December 27. Of especial interest from the point of view o^ the historical student were papers by Mr. Theodore L. Cole of Washington on the plans for a union catalogue of American colonial laws, by Mr. C. S. Brigham of the Rhode Island Historical Society on the need of a bibliography of American colonial newspapers, by Dr. Thwaites on the bibliographical work of historical societies, and the report of the committee on Americana. The various antiquarian and ancestral societies are preparing busily for a proper arrangement of collections, as well as of public accom- modations at the Jamestown Exposition. The fact that the Exposition Company has given the name of Jamestown to the exposition grounds at Norfolk, seems to have caused some confusion, and it seems probable that many of the organizations which have decided to hold their meet- ings for 1907 at " Jamestown " have the old town-site in view. There will be abundant accommodation for conventions, etc., at the Exposition at Norfolk; but at Jamestown Island, though every preparation will be made for rest houses, park benches, pure water, etc., there will be no place for meetings unless they are held out of doors. At the semi-annual meeting of the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester on October 24, Dr. Edward Everett Hale was elected presi- dent. The society made provision for a catalogue of its manuscripts, and appointed a committee to consider the publication by the society,