EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 23 



the publication of this volume until the present, contributions of value 

 have been made annually by the Institution to this branch of knowledge. 



During the past year small appropriations were made as usual for 

 opening mounds and collecting their contents, and larger ones to Mr. F. 

 A. Ober, for archaeological explorations in the West Indies, and Stephen 

 Bowers for similar operations in California. The former gentleman has 

 succeeded in finding remnants of the ancient Carib tribes, and has 

 obtained photographs of the people and specimens of their handiwork. 

 His exploration bids fair to produce a valuable return for the money 

 expended. It is not confined to ethnology, but embraces collections in 

 all branches of natural history. 



The exploration by Mr. Bowers was a continuation of one undertaken 

 in connection with Major Powell, and was made in the vicinity of Santa 

 Barbara and on the islands adjacent to Lower California. From this 

 exploration forty boxes of very interesting relics of the ancient inhabit- 

 ants of this country have been received. A. full report of these will be 

 prepared by Major Powell. The entire series of objects obtained become 

 the property of the National Museum. 



As will be seen from the exhibit of the executive committee, the whole 

 amount of money devoted to explorations during the year is $879.50. 



The collection of the archaeology and ethnology of America in the Na- 

 tional Museum is the most extensive in the world; and, in order to con- 

 nect it permanently with the name of Smithson, it has been thought 

 advisable to prepare and publish at the expense of the Smithson fund 

 an exhaustive work on American anthropology, in which the various 

 classes of specimens shall be figured and described. 



For this purpose Mr. Charles Rau, formerly of New York, well known 

 for his contributions to American archaeology, has been employed to 

 take charge of the work, with the assistance of skilled artists. He is 

 furnished with rooms in the building, and now devotes one-half of the 

 time to the arrangement of the archaeological museum, and the other to 

 the description of the specimens and the direction of the artists engaged 

 in delineating them. 



The Institution has also lately entered upon a project it has long had in 

 contemplation, namely, the compilation of a map of the distribution and 

 character of the archaeological remains of North America. The prelimi- 

 nary arrangements for this work have been intrusted to Prof. Otis T. 

 Mason, of Columbian University, who has prepared a circular which wil 

 soon be published by the Institution. 



In the last report it was stated that the large collection of Indian 

 vocabularies in possession of the Institution had been transferred to 

 Prof. J. W. Powell, to be incorporated with his series in his general 

 work on the ethnology of the Territories of the United States in course 

 of preparation and publication by the Interior Department. What has 

 been accomplished during the past year in relation to this work will be 

 seen in Professor Powell's account of his explorations, given in the ap- 

 pendix to the report of the Secretary. 



