REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 41 



valuable contributions to philology, if not printed, will be preserved 

 and rendered more accessible to the ethnological student. 



At the suggestion of Mr. Taylor, we have prepared a circular 

 addressed to the Catholic clergymen, missionaries, and institutions of 

 California, Oregon, Washington, Vancouver's Island, British Colum- 

 bia, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, asking for copies of all Indian 

 vocabularies, grammars, catechisms, and other philological materials, 

 made or collected by the priests who labored among the aborigines, 

 and which, we are informed, are still to be found in many of the 

 mission stations. In Alta California alone, it is said that there are 

 twenty-one missions, in which are preserved books of baptisms, mar- 

 riages, and deaths of the Indians from 1769 to 1846. 



Mr. George Gribbs, formerly of New York, during a residence of 

 twelve years on the Pacific coast, has devoted much time to collecting 

 materials for the illustration of the ethnology of the country. He 

 has obtained over fifty vocabularies of the various languages and 

 dialects spoken along the coast from Behring's straits to San Francisco, 

 and further south ; many of which are accompanied by special 

 memoirs by intelligent gentlemen residing among particular tribes or 

 families, and who are well acquainted with their respective idioms. 

 Mr. Gibbs is at present engaged in arranging his materials with a 

 view to present them to this Institution. By the collection and pub- 

 lication of all the materials of this class which can be obtained, addi- 

 tions may be made of importance to the ethnologist, in solving many 

 questions as to the general philosophy of language, and the connection 

 of the different families of American Indians with each other and with 

 different races of mankind. 



A considerable number of answers have been received to the circular 

 addressed by the Institution to the foreign agents of the government, 

 missionaries, and other persons in all parts of the world, relative to 

 the investigation as to the system of relationship adopted by different 

 tribes, nations, and races of mankind, mentioned in the last report, 

 as undertaken by Mr. Morgan. These letters have been sent to Mr. 

 Morgan, who has, in turn, acknowledged his indebtedness to the Insti- 

 tution for the valuable aid rendered him in the prosecution of his 

 research. 



Some years ago a memoir was submitted to the Institution, on the 

 physical peculiarities of the European man in America, by a gentle- 

 man of Cincinnati, which was found to contain a large amount of 

 interesting matter, but scarcely sufficient data to warrant a safe induction 

 as to the subject of investigation. A similar inquiry has been insti- 



