32 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



been so closely connected with the material progress of the United 

 States. Several important specimens have already been received, 

 notably the "John Bull" locomotive engine, which was built in 1831 

 in England by George and Eobert Stephenson for the " Camden and Am- 

 boy Eail and Tramway Company," by which this engine was used from 

 1831 to 1861. This is now stored at the Armory building, but will be 

 placed on exhibition as soon as proper space can be provided. 



Department of Ethnology. — The Curator of this department, Prof. Otis 

 T. Mason, having gathered the ethnological material belonging to the 

 Museum during the last half of 1884, commenced in 1885 its methodical 

 arrangement. The basketry, throwing-sticks, sinew-backed bows, and 

 the whole series of arrows, have been studied and classified, so as to 

 illustrate their distribution, tribal characteristics, and evolution. It is 

 designed to continue this system in the remaining portions of the col- 

 lection, with the view of better unfolding through the arts of savagery 

 the origin and development of civilization. 



During the past six months the Curator made two official visits to the 

 New Orleans Exposition, for the purpose of securing for the National 

 Museum some of the material exhibited by the Departments of the Gen- 

 eral Governmeut and of foreign countries. By this means the Museum 

 has obtained a large number of accessions. Material of especial value 

 was also received from Rev. C. H. A. Dall, of Calcutta ; Rev. Dr. George 

 W. Samson ; Mr. James Stevenson, of the Bureau of Ethnology, and 

 others, which will be fully described in the Report on the National Mu- 

 seum. 



Mr. William H. Holmes, of the Bureau of Ethnology, has continued 

 the installation of aboriginal pottery, directing his efforts chiefly to la- 

 belling, cataloguing, and classifying the accessions received in the sum- 

 mer and fall of 1884. The very extensive collections of Pueblo material 

 made for the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in 

 New Orleans, arrived too late to be made fully available for exhibition, 

 but a small representative series of vessels and other objects of clay 

 was forwarded to New Orleans. The collection of ancient pottery, re- 

 cently obtained from Chiriqui, Panama, and partly paid for from the 

 exposition funds, was also represented. The most important accessions 

 have been from the explorations ot Mr. L. H. Aym^, in Mexico. It is 

 hoped that a portion, at least, of the pottery court will be opened to 

 the public by the end of the present calendar year. 



Department of Antiquities. — Dr. Charles Rau has continued his work 

 in the department of antiquities, carrying on toward completion the 

 system of arrangement which he began ten years ago. He reports im- 

 portant accessions from the Bureau of Ethnology ; from explorations of 

 Edward Palmer in Arizona; from Oaxaca, Mexico, by L. H. Aym^; from 

 Costa Rica, by J. C, Zeledon ; and from the island of Guadaloupe by L. 

 Guesde. An exceedingly valuable collection of casts of the antiquities 

 of Mexico and Yucatan has been deposited in the Museum by Senor 



