EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 39 



articles of such value from our country, and which can never be re- 

 placed, there is uo redress in the way of prohibiting their collection 

 and its exportation. We may, however, prevent it in the future by our 

 preoccupying the ground. It is, therefore, to be hoped that Congress 

 will make suitable appropriations for the purpose in question. Ten or 

 twenty thousand dollars expended annually would enable us in a man- 

 ner to defy foreign competition. 



In the sundry civil appropriation bill of March 3, 1S79, the following 

 item was included : 



" For completing and preparing for publication the contributions to 

 jSorth American ethnology, under the Smithsonian Institution, twenty 

 thousand dollars : Provided, That all the archives, records, and mate- 

 rials relating to the Indians of North America, collected by the geo- 

 graphical and geological survey of the Rocky Mountain region, shall be 

 turned over to the Smithsonian Institution, that the work may be com- 

 pleted and prepared for publication under its direction : Provided, That 

 it shall meet the approval of the Secretary of the Interior and of the 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution." 



Under the authority of this enactment, Major Powell sent out a party 

 to make a renewed examination of the pueblo villages of New Mexico, 

 for the purpose of obtaining more accurate information for publication 

 in the final report, as authorized. Accordingly, Mr. James Stevenson 

 was placed by Major Powell at the head of an expedition, and was ac- 

 companied by Mr. Frank II. Cashing, one of the assistants in charge of 

 the ethnological department of the National Museum. With Santa IV 

 as a starting-point, they explored several localities in that vicinity and 

 elsewhere, and succeeded in obtaining a large collection of everything 

 illustrating the manners and customs of the pueblo towns. The collec- 

 tions made have all been shipped by the Quartermaster's Department, 

 under the order already referred to, and are expected to arrive in a few 

 weeks. The whole mass occupies nearly one hundred boxes. 



The operations of Messrs. Stevenson and dishing have been much 

 facilitated by means of letters furnished by the Secretary of War aud 

 Generals Sherman and Meigs to the officers of the military posts.* Gen- 

 eral Hatch took a special interest in the subject, and issued a circular 

 calling attention to the mission of the party, and inviting cooperation 



*War Department, 

 Quartermaster-General's Office, 



Washington, D. C, June 19, 1879. 

 Sir: Yon are respectfully informed that your communication of the 12th instant, re- 

 questing thai a circular lie issued authorizing the Quartermaster's Department to receive 

 from parties living at or near military posts and to forward to Washington any articles 

 intended for the National Museum, has been referred by the Secretary of War to thi3 

 office for report, and this day returned with the following remarks: 



"The Quartermaster's Department, under existing orders, transports to the National 

 Museum the collections of United States surveys and exploring expeditions, organized 

 under the War Department. 



"The law of March 3, 1879 (Forty-fifth Congress, third session, chap. 182), makes 



