Both the rate and the amount of culture change through time may be determined by comparing traits of one temporal segment of a continuum with other segments in progression from the oldest to the youngest segment. Additive and subtractive changes, or innovations and losses, must be evaluated against the time scale rather than balanced against one another, because of the time lag which may occur even if an innovation does produce a corresponding loss.

In recent years several dugout canoes have been found in Ontario, but details are lacking for most. One raised from shallow water at Balsam Lake is badly eroded and appears to be of some antiquity. It is a sleek craft of unusual length, remarkably slim proportions and contour, and considerable rigidity, despite its apparent lightness in proportion to its size, because of its substantial bow and stern.

Metal buttons bearing the Phoenix bird, a motto in French, and a number are found in quantity in historic sites along the lower Columbia River, and less commonly throughout western North America. Phoenix buttons were not made for Napoleon, as often claimed, but were manufactured by an English firm in the early 1800's for King Christophe of Haiti. The Phoenix bird and the motto come from his coat of arms; the numbers refer to regiments. These military uniform buttons were brought to the Northwest before 1835 by an independent trader, most likely Nathaniel Wyeth, who probably used uniform coats, which he may have obtained earlier when shipping ice to the West Indies, to trade for fish for his salmon packing plant on the Columbia River.

The removal of loam from the grounds of the Old Mansion Inn, Wayland, Massachusetts, exposed blackened areas which were investigated by local collectors. The site was obviously a rich and unusual burial area, probably including cremations, with good possibilities for radiocarbon dating of the entire tool assemblage. Unfortunately, the site was destroyed within a very short time by children, their parents, and friends, assisted by some local collectors. Many members of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society were shocked that the collectors who participated in the looting of the site rather than protecting it for serious study were members of the Society. This incident points up the need for state and local societies to discover some way of disciplining members who do not conform to accepted standards of archaeological work.

The analysis of the bone from a bison drive in north-central Montana corroborates the implications of White's analyses of bison bone from Plains villages: the heaviest non-meaty bone was left at the kill site, the bones rich in marrow were chopped up for marrow-extraction; even when many animals were available all were thoroughly utilized by the hunters. This excavation also confirms ethnographic data on season of drives, methods of butchering, and use of arrows for killing.