REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 37 



source of supply is from explorations made at the expense of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. A fifth source of increase is from purchase, which, 

 however, is very insignificant, and is principally confined to specimens 

 of animals obtained in marliet or occasionally a single ethnological imple- 

 ment, offered under specially favorable circumstances. It is in this that 

 the National Museum differs most from establishments of its grade 

 throughout the world, which depend very largely upon purchases to secure 

 desired materials. Here, on the contrary, the space and force at com- 

 mand are all fully required to receive and care for the collections that 

 are continually arriving from the sources referred to. 



In view of the limited accommodations for the collections and of the 

 small appropriations for their maintenance, the special efforts toward 

 the extension of the National Museum have been restricted, for the most 

 part, to North America and to the most interesting subject of research 

 at the present daj^, that of American anthropology. Every possible ef- 

 fort has been made to invite contributions of facts and materials on this 

 subject, and with very gratifying success. The intention of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution to publish, whenever the proper means can be obtained, 

 an exhaustive treatise on American archoeology, with suitable illustra- 

 tions, has invoked the co-operation of many persons who desire to see such 

 an end accomplished; and especially as the Institution proposes to give, 

 under each group, an enumeration of the principal articles received, 

 arranged by localities and donors. 



Few portions of the country have been without representation in the 

 ethnological donations of the year ; although certain regions have been 

 more prolificthan others. The largest additions from any one source have 

 resulted from the continued explorations of Eev. Stephen Bowers on the 

 main-land in the vicinity of Santa Barbara, and on the adjacent islands 

 of Southern California; over forty boxes of material having been 

 supplied by him alone. This exploration was made under the auspices 

 of Maj. J. W. Powell, with the co-operation of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion. An exhaustive report on the subject will be published by Major 

 Powell, the collections themselves becoming the property of the National 

 Museum. 



AYith the material heretofore gathered in the same region, by Mr. W.G. 

 W. Harford, Mr. W. H. Dall, Mr. Paul Schumacher, and Mr. Bowers him- 

 self, it is believed there can never be a better representation of the 

 archfeology of the tribes of the California coast than that now in AYash- 

 iugton. This embraces a great variety of objects of stone, bone, shell, 

 and wood, representing applications of these substances far in advance 

 of those of any other aboriginal tribes, excepting those of the northwest 

 coast. 



The large collections of similar character, made by Mr. Bowers, in 

 1875, in behalf of Lieutenant "Wheeler's survey, have tilso been trans- 

 ferred, in part, by that office, to the' Museum. 

 From Mr. Lucien M. Turner, late meteorological observer of the signal- 



