44 KEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



NATIOiTAL MUSEUM. 



The work of organization of the departments of the Museum has been 

 carried on vigorously during the past year. For a full account of all 

 its operations I would refer to the report of Mr. G. Brown Goode, the 

 assistant director, given in the ai)pendix to this report. The fullness 

 of this account seems to render any resumS of the operations and present 

 condition of the Museum unnecessary here. 



BUEEAU OF ETHNOLOGY. 



The appropriation made by Congress for the prosecution of ethnolog- 

 ical researches among the North American Indians, under the direction 

 of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was continued, and the 

 work remained in charge of Maj. J. W. Powell. 



Field Work. — A large amount of field work was accomplished during 

 the year. The general excavation of mounds was placed in the charge 

 of Prof. Cyrus Thomas, with several assistants, through whose exertions 

 large collections were made, chiefly in the Mississippi Valley. 



Dr. Edward Palmer has continued his explorations in Tennessee and 

 in Arkansas along the Mississippi, White, and Arkansas Eivers. A 

 short time was devoted to examination of the mounds and other works 

 in Southwestern Indiana. 



Mr. F. S. Earle was engaged a short time in examining and locating 

 the mound groups of Southeast Missouri, and in opening mounds and 

 stone graves in Southern Illinois. 



Mr. James D. Middleton, after Mr. Earle withdrew, continued the 

 work in Southern Illinois until stopped by the cold, when he was trans 

 ferred to the South, and is now in Alabama. 



Col. P. W. Norris entered upon the work in August, his field of labor 

 being the west bank of the Mississippi, from Dubuque, Iowa, to the Ar- 

 kansas line. 



Hon. William M. Adams has been engaged to work up the mounds 

 in Madison County, Illinois, including the Cahokia group. He had 

 already completed the map of them and commenced opening them when 

 the cold weather stopped him. 



The result of operations so far may be summed up briefly as follows : 



A very good and valuable collection, almost exclusively of mound 

 relics, consisting of pottery, stone implements, clay and stone images, 

 clay and stone pipes, plates of mica, gorgets, shell ornaments, engraved 

 shells, fragments of copper ornaments, fragments of wooden ornaments, 

 fragments of matting, pieces of burned clay which have been stamped, 

 an ancient Catholic medal of brass, a brass Chinese medal or coin (the 

 two latter are surface finds, the first found on a mound in Southern 

 Illinois, the other on the site of an old French fort in Arkansas), quite 

 a number of crania and tibiae. The collection of pottery is quite large 



