. Ontario Sessional Papers, 1905, . igh state. At best, such a method of expression must always be more orless arbitrary, even when conventionalized forms have become fixed. 11)04 ARCHAEOLOGICAL REPORT 55 We may feel quite sure, for example, that certain lines, or combina-tion of lines indicate rain, water, lightning, buffaloes, and so on,but beyond this we cannot go without direction or instruction fromsome one who possesses a knowledge of the story either at first hand,as the writer, or, traditionally. The most highly conventionalized characters in Ontario appear onprecipitous rock-
. Ontario Sessional Papers, 1905, . igh state. At best, such a method of expression must always be more orless arbitrary, even when conventionalized forms have become fixed. 11)04 ARCHAEOLOGICAL REPORT 55 We may feel quite sure, for example, that certain lines, or combina-tion of lines indicate rain, water, lightning, buffaloes, and so on,but beyond this we cannot go without direction or instruction fromsome one who possesses a knowledge of the story either at first hand,as the writer, or, traditionally. The most highly conventionalized characters in Ontario appear onprecipitous rock-faces, and are usually found on lake and river mar-gins. A few samples of such work have been found on bits of muchdecayed birch-bark, and, so far as known, Ontario has no examplesof pictographs on skins, by its old people. Among prairie tribes,however, thio seems to have been a favorite device for recordingevents of importance, if we may judge from the observations of Cat-lin, Schoolcraft and other early travellers, but even on their auth-. Fig. 81. ority we are not quite sure how far back the practice extended. Whatwas seen by the pioneer explorers may not have dated beyond theearliest white-man days, although it is easy to concede the likeli-hood of long previous use when we know how marvellously adeptthe plains Indians were in the use of sign language, not by meansof limb movements only, but by light-flashes from pieces of the Sioux there were kept winter counts, or calendars,by means of pictures arranged spirally, on buffalo skins, and some-times covering periods of from fifty to a hundred years. In accor-dance with this method, the count was kept by designating eachwinter as this or that, referring to some important event of the sea-son. The Blackfoot record on deer skin, of which a good copy is shownat figure 81, seems to be connected with some hostile engagement. 56 ARCH^OLOGICAL REPORT The presence of horses, and of muskets, is enough to show us thatthe reco
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