EEPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM. 179 



de Sevres. This is a technological display, including the materials, im- 

 plements, and products used in this establishment. There has also been 

 received a very valuable vase from the same place decorated in gold and 

 colors by F. de Courcy, the gift of L. Straus & Son, of New York, im- 

 porters. 



Mr. W. H. Holmes has been detailed by the Director of the Bureau of 

 Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution to prepare a report upon 

 American aboriginal pottery, and the entire collections of the Museum 

 have been placed in his hands for that purpose, and are now concen- 

 trated in the northwest court, where cases are already prepared for 

 their reception, which will be occupied as soon as the interior fittings 

 are decided upon. This collection is wonderfully rich, and, after its 

 arrangement has been completed, will be one of the most impressive in 

 the whole Museum. It has been increased during the year by a number 

 of important contributions, among which may be mentioned especially 

 a gift of 100 pieces of Peruvian pottery from Mr. W. W. Evans, of New 

 Eochelle, N. Y. 



Section of Costumes.— Mr. J. K. Goodrich and Ensign A. P. Nib- 

 lack, TJ. S. N., have rendered efficient service in the work of assorting 

 and preparing labels for the general collections of costumes, imple- 

 ments, &c. The wealth of the Musenm in articles of costume derived 

 from the North American aborigines is very great, as also in all classes 

 of implements and other articles which usually make up the bulk of 

 ethnological collections. The mass of unassorted material is still very 

 large, and is being increased every week by the arrival of new accessions. 



The extensive collections of the Bureau of Ethnology from the pue- 

 blos of New Mexico and Arizona were transferred to the custody of the 

 Museum in November, including numerous specimens of basket-ware, 

 pottery, gourds, grinding-stones or mortars, weapons, ceremonial, house- 

 hold, agricultural, and industrial implements. In referring to this ma- 

 terial I feel it my duty to call attention to the fact that many of these 

 specimens have suffered deterioration during the interval between the 

 time when they were collected and the time when it became practicable 

 for the Museum to assume their custody, as must necessarily be the case 

 when perishable objects of wood, grass, wool, and feathers are allowed 

 to remain without the protection of dust- and insect-tight cases. Very 

 many of them, too, suffered damage in the necessarily rough carriage 

 on pack-mules from the remote regions where they were collected to the 

 lines of railroad transportation, and consequently are by no means so 

 beautiful and well preserved as they would appear to be from the illus- 

 trations of them published in the reports of the Bureau of Ethnology, 

 which represent them in their best condition as seen in the hands of their 

 original owners by the persons who gathered them. 



