10 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OP 



different branches of knowledge ; but it has been found by experience 

 that the inducements held out by the offer of publication free of ex- 

 pense under the sanction of the Institution, and the assistance which is 

 occasionally afforded, will produce more material of the first quality 

 than will exhaust the small portion of the income which can be devoted 

 to researches and publication. 



In first proposing the system of literary exchanges which is now ex- 

 tended over every part of the civihzed world, a promise was made to 

 all the foreign societies which should send their transactions to the 

 Smithsonian library that, on the part of the Institution, at least one 

 quarto volume of oTriginal contributions to knowledge would annually 

 be given in return. The experience of seven years has rendered it 

 evident that this promise can be fully redeemed. Indeed, were the 

 funds sufficient, two large volumes might be published in the same- 

 time. 



The seventh volume is nearly completed, and will be ready for 

 distribution in the course of a lew weel^s. It will contain a number of 

 memoirs, the largest of which are on the subject of American antiqui- 

 ties. An account of one of these, viz., that on the EJigij Mounds of 

 Wisconsin, was given in the last report. 



A number of memoirs have been examined and accepted for publica- 

 tion since the date of the last report. 



1. A paper has been prepared at the special request of the Institution, 

 by S. F. Haven, esq., librarian of the American Antiquarian Society, Wor- 

 cester, Massachusetts, which will form a part of the seventh volume. 



Its intention is to give a retrospective view of the progress of know- 

 ledge and opinions relative to the whole subject of American antiquities- 

 For this purpose the author has, in the first place, presented a sum- 

 mary of the opinions of early writers upon the question of the origin 

 and sources of the native population of this country, and in this con- 

 nexion has noticed some of the more prominent writers of later date 

 who have sustained one or other of the ancient hypotheses. 



In the second place he has considered the accounts of the early 

 Spanish and French adventurers, and the reports of the Jesuit mission- 

 aries, who first became acquainted with the inhabitants in their native 

 condition, so far as those accounts have a bearini? on the orio;in and 

 uses of the earth-works of this country. 



In the third place he has sought to ascertain the names of the early 

 explorers who examined and described any of these ancient remains, 

 and to give the extent of their investigations. 



He has next followed the succession of observations and speculations 

 of different periods down to the present time ; and, lastly, he has given 

 a concise rcsM/ne of the facts which have thus far been established. 



These are, 1st. The nature and extent of the aboriginal monuments 

 in the United States east of the Rocky mountains ; 



2d. Their location relatively to one another and to different portions 

 of the country ; 



3d. Their affinities to the works of existing or recently extinct tribes. 



The memoir is intended to have a bibliographical character, so far 

 as this could be effected without interrupting the continuity of the nar- 

 rative. It will be found important, not only in pointing out what has 



