KEPOST OF THE SECRETARY. 39 



oners of war at Saint Augustine, in Florida, under the charge of the 

 War Department. These were prepared dnriug the summer by Mr. 

 Clark Mills, the well-known sculptor, of Washington, who visited Saint 

 Augustine for the purpose. It is generally difficult to induce an Indian 

 to submit to the discomfort and apparent danger of the treatment re- 

 quired in taking face casts, but these prisoners were easily persuaded 

 by Captain Pratt, United States Infantry, who has them in special 

 charge, to allow the operation, and Mr. Mills was extremely successful 

 in the work. In addition to the heads, a number of separate casts of arms, 

 legs, and busts were taken, thus furnishing a rare opportunity for study- 

 ing the anatomy of the Indian. The tribes represented are the Kiowas, 

 Comanches, Arapahoes, &c. This collection furnishes not only the 

 means of studying the lineaments of the North American Indian, but 

 also answers the purpose of models for lay figures on which to place the 

 many suits of Indian clothing in possession of the Museum. 



Extremely important additions have been received from several of 

 the West India islands during the year, some of them unique and pre- 

 viously more or less unknown. Eefereuce has been made in previous 

 reports to the extremely rich collection of stone implements bequeathed 

 to the National Museum by Mr. George Latimer, and of which an illus- 

 trated account by Professor Mason is published in the Smithsonian Ee. 

 port for 1876. Among articles of West Indian archieology received in 

 1877 are several wooden stools of peculiar shapes, highly ornamented 

 and carved, presented by Dr. William M. Gabb and Mr. Frith ; some 

 wooden idols of la^rge size and complex shape, also from Dr. Gabb ; a 

 stone celt, with the handle and cutting ijortiou in one piece, from Mr. 

 George J. Gibbs ; a stone celt inserted in its original handle, b}' Mr. 

 Murphy, and a number of specimens of somewhat similar character, 

 belonging to the public library of Nassau, and lent for the purpose of 

 being figured and copied. Some collections of a similar character made 

 by Mr. Frederick A. Ober in Dominica, Antigua, and elsewhere, have 

 not yet come to hand. 



Other extra-limital collections received have been a series of very in- 

 teresting articles of obsidian and stone from the National Museum of 

 Mexico, and some ancient Japanese stone implements from the Tokio 

 Museum in Japan. 



Of mammals quite a number of specimens have been received, the 

 most striking of them being a pair each of the blue and white foxes of 

 Saint Paul's Island, Alaska, from the Alaska Commercial Company; 

 the skin of a cinnamon bear, from Mr. F. O. Mattesou ; skins of antarctic 

 seals, from Captain Fuller; and a skeleton of a porpoise of the genus 

 Tursiops, new to the Museum, from Mr. Alfred N. Lawrence ; two skel- 

 etons of the grampus, from Mr. Small, of Provincetown ; alcoholic speci- 

 mens of Platypus and Echidna from Tasmania, &c. 



The collections of birds and their eggs received during the year have 

 been quite abundant, the most noteworthy among them being a speci- 



