214 EIGH-FH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



"e. What is the average relative force and velocity of winds from 

 several points of the compass? 



"/. How will the introduction or omission of the latter element affect 

 the answer of the preceding questions?" 



The data used in answering these questions have been collected 

 with great labor, and consist of observations made at no less than five 

 hundred and seventy-six different stations on land, and a large number 

 taken during numerous voyages at sea. The field of observation in- 

 cludes a zone which extends i'rom the ecjuator to near the parallel of 

 85° oi" north latitude, and occupies a period, taken in the aggregate, of 

 2,800 years. 



Several of the Ibregoiug questions have been answered approximately 

 by other writers, but never, it is believed, from as extensive an induc- 

 tion as is presented in this memoir. 



This paper is illustrated by a number of mops and diagrams, which 

 render its publication very expensive. It was presented to the Insti- 

 tution more than a year ago, but the appropriation for printing w'as not 

 sufficient to allow f)f its publication at that time. 



6. The Institution has also commenced the publication of an extended 

 memoir, consisting of a grammar and lexicon of the Dakota language, 

 the results of the joint labors during eighteen years of the Dakota mis- 

 sion, assisted by the most intelligent natives of this tribe of Indians. 

 The whole has been arranged and placed in its pi'esent ti)rm by the 

 Rev. S. R. Riggs, of the American Board of Missions. 



This work was prepared under the auspices of the Historical Society 

 of Minnesota, and recommended by this association to the fiivorable 

 attention of the Smithsonian Institution. It is designed to meet the 

 requirements of the missionar}' in his labor of diffiising the light of 

 religion and civilization among one of the most numerous and important 

 tribes of Indians in the country. It also forms an interesting additiorA 

 to ethnology, which w-ill be highly prized by all devoted to this branch 

 of knowledge. 



A language is not originally a thing of man's device, or the result of 

 conventional art, but the spontaneous production of human instinct, 

 modified by the mental character, the physical conditions, and other 

 ])eculiarities of the people or tribe among w4iich it had its origin, or by 

 whom it is used. . It is subject to definite laws of formation and devel- 

 opment, and is intimately connected with the history of the migrations 

 and aliihations of the people by whom it is spoken, and hence becomes 

 an object of interest to the student of the natural history of man. 



In accordance with the policy of not expending the Smithsonian fund 

 in doing with it w^hat could be equally well done by other means, this 

 memoir was first referred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, with the 

 hope that it might be adopted as a part of the materials of the volumes 

 I)ublished under the direction of that bureau ; but this was not found 

 practicable, and the task was therefore undertaken by the Institution. 



The memoir will occupy an entire volume, and would have been too 

 much for our present income, h;td not about one third of the whole cost 

 of j)ublication been promised by subscrijjtion fi'om the members of the 

 Historical Society of Minnesota and the American Board of Missions. 

 The latter institution defrays the expenses of Mr. Riggs wdiile he is en- 



