REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 23 



relative to prehistoric contacts between the tribes of northeastern 

 Mexico and those of the lower Mississippi Valley. Materially aided 

 by the staff of the Plant Quarantine and Control Administration, 

 United States Department of Agriculture, at Alpine, Mr. Setzler 

 centered his recent explorations in the Chisos Mountains district, 

 overlooking the Eio Grande. A number of important caves in this 

 region were investigated and various other examinations were made 

 that correlate with results obtained last year in Presidio County to 

 the west. 



During the past year the cooperative agreement between the 

 Smithsonian Institution and the University of Toulouse for the ex- 

 cavation of prehistoric sites in France, arranged by J. Townsend 

 Russell, collaborator in Old World archeology, as representative of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, became formally effective. In July, 

 1931, as field director of the Smithsonian Institution-University of 

 Toulouse researches in prehistory, financed by the Institution from 

 the Old World archeology fund, Mr. Russell initiated excavations 

 in the cave of Marsoulas, in the commune of the same name. Depart- 

 ment of Haute-Garonne, southern France. Count Henri Begouen, 

 professor of prehistory at the University of Toulouse, participated 

 in the investigations as representative of the university. Exploratory 

 soundings were also made in the near-by cave of Tarte, in the cave 

 of Roquecourbere, one of the two sites of Solutrean age in the 

 Pyrenees, and in the workshop of Roquecourbere. In consequence 

 of this preliminary work a formal agreement was signed on Novem- 

 ber 27 for cooperative work between the University of Toulouse and 

 the Smithsonian Institution in the same general region during a 

 period of 10 years. 



It is a privilege to be able thus to join with the University of 

 Toulouse in researches which should contribute new information to 

 our present knowledge of Paleolithic man. While the cooperative 

 agreement provides that the rarest objects remain in France, the 

 generosity of the University of Toulouse is apparent from the fact 

 that it retained only two of the specimens found during the pre- 

 liminary work of the season of 1931. Thus it is to be expected that 

 representative series of artifacts will come to help fill the very 

 considerable gaps in the National Museum's limited exhibits of 

 European prehistory. 



At the opening of the fiscal year Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, curator of 

 physical anthropology, was engaged in anthropological and archeo- 

 logical investigations in Alaska that included the lower Nushagak 

 River, Bristol Bay, the Iliamna Lake regions, portions of Kodiak 

 Island and adjacent areas. Interesting results were obtained 

 throughout, with especially important materials coming from 



