REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43 



fer to other stations, Capt. E. H. Pratt, United States Infantry, who had 

 them in command, and who had become greatly interested in all meas- 

 ures looking towards the education of the Indians, was authorized by the 

 government to bring a number of young Indians of both sexes to the 

 school for colored youth so successfully conducted by General Armstrong 

 at Hampton, Va. This having been accomplished, an opportunity was 

 furnished of extending the series of casts, and Mr. Clark Mills again 

 volunteered his services to do the work, simply for his expenses. Cap- 

 tain Pratt accordingly made the arrangements for its execution. This 

 second series makes the entire number of representations of Indians in 

 the museum about one hundred. These casts are valuable to us, both as 

 anthropologic representations in themselves and as furnishing the means 

 of producing lay figures in great number and variety to display the many 

 sets of Indian clothing and equipment now forming x^art of the general 

 collection. 



In this connection it may be mentioned that Captain Pratt has more 

 recently established a special school for the education of Indian youth, 

 of both sexes, at Carlisle, Pa., using the government barracks for its ac- 

 commodation. Here he expects to bring together between three and 

 four hundred individuals and has every assurance of a successful experi- 

 ment. 



EXPLORATIONS. 



Among the operations of the Smithsonian Institution, especially fos- 

 tered from the beginning by my predecessor, and looked upon by him as 

 one of its most important functions, is that of exploration in little-known 

 regions of North America. It was his policy not to use the funds of the 

 Institution in purchasing collections already made, but rather, by means 

 of occasional grants of money in small sums, either to fit out small parties 

 starting from Washington, or to assist correspondents of the Institution, 

 wherever they might be resident, in making researches in their own 

 vicinity. These labors generally included more than one branch of sci- 

 ence, and in their aggregate have tended very largely to give the Na- 

 tional Museum its remarkable number of type specimens. Thus grants 

 of money were made, of various sums, from $5 to $250, very rarely ex- 

 ceeding the latter amount in any one year to any one agent. 



The results of the explorations condensed in whole or in part by the 

 Smithsonian Institution, in 1879. have not been inferior in importance 

 to those of any previous year; in fact they have seldom been exceeded ; re- 

 sulting not only in bringing together many new facts in natural history 

 and ethnology, but also in adding large collections to those already in 

 hand. The prospect of having a new building capacious enough to ac- 

 commodate whatever may be received in this direction was an encour- 

 agement to utilize opportunities of obtaining objects, from which we 

 were formerly deterred by want of space. 



Among the more important explorations made under the auspices of 

 the Smithsonian Institution in 1879, may be mentioned that of Mr. E. W. 



