30 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



which is very small. Three plans are suggested for the extension of 

 the hours of opening. The first includes every week-day evening and 

 Sundays; the second, three evenings during each week and every Sun- 

 day; the third, Sundays only. The first plan most strongly commends 

 itself. 



The progress of the work of classifying and arranging the collec- 

 tions both for exhibition and for study has been greatly retarded, as 

 during many A^ears past, by lack of space and by reason of the insuffi- 

 cient force provided. The difficulty in regard to space will cease with 

 the completion of the new building authorized by Congress in 1903, 

 but that completion is still years distant. I can not too strongly urge 

 that when the building is read}" an adequate staff of scientific men can 

 not be improvised, but that such an one must be largely gathered in 

 the time which now oti'ers for preparation if one is to be provided 

 adequate to the demand. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 



The past year's work of the Bureau has continued mainly along the 

 usual lines, and in a number of directions is making rapid progress 

 toward final results. 



The research work among the aborigines has been carried forward 

 in four widely distrilnited regions — among the Haida tribes of the 

 Queen Charlotte Islands and southern Alaska; among the Pueblo 

 Indians of New Mexico; among a luimbor of tribes of the great plains 

 in Oklahoma and Indian Territory, and in the West Indies where the 

 interesting and obscure problems of the ancient remains and tribal 

 remnants are receiving deserved attention. The studies in these sev- 

 eral fields are now gradually approaching completion, and monographs 

 embodying the results are in hand. 



In the field of linguistics much attention has ])een given to the col- 

 lection of data from the tril^es and the preparation of a handbook of 

 the American languages, which is expected to mark a very decided 

 advance in the knowledge of primitive tongues. 



An important feature of the 3 ear's work was the preparation iuid 

 installation of an exhibit intended to illustrate at the Louisiana 

 Purchase Exposition (-(n-tain phases of the Bureau's work, and special 

 studies were pursued and collections made for this purpose. 



A measure for the preservation of oui' national antiquities was intro 

 duced in the Senate by Senator Cullom, and a similar measure was 

 offered in the House of Representatives })y. Mr. Hitt. Since other 

 legislation along the same lines has b(^en proposed to Congress and the 

 subject is still under discussion, no final action having been taken, it 

 is not desin^l to say more here than that the Institution, through the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology, is deeply interested in the proposed 



