72 ANNUAL REPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1933 



general income of the Smithsonian Institution, assisted by contribu- 

 tions from individuals, while certain projects were financed through 

 the income of special funds held as endowments by the Smithsonian. 

 Financial assistance in field expenses from the annual governmental 

 appropriations for the National Museum was small and concerned only 

 part of the various projects. Funds to assist in these matters, especi- 

 ally from private sources, are one of the definite needs of our 

 organization. 



Archeological work in northern Alaska was continued during the 

 summer of 1932 by James A. Ford under the general direction of 

 Henry B. CoUins, Jr. Mr. Ford arrived at Point Barrow late in 

 August 1931, when the ground was beginning to freeze. He found ice 

 conditions in the Arctic the worst in many years, and so remained at 

 Barrow through the winter in order to allow a full season of excava- 

 tion in the summer of 1932. He returned to Washington in November 

 1932. Barrow seems the most promising locality at which to find 

 dependable evidence of the relationship between the old Bering Sea 

 culture and the Thule, the dominant prehistoric Eskimo culture of the 

 eastern Arctic regions. In addition to archeological material Mr. 

 Ford obtained the skull of a bowhead whale and a series of birds. 



From February 18 to June 5, 1933, Frank M. Setzler, assistant 

 curator of archeology, continued archeological investigations in south- 

 western Texas, restricting this year's work to the Pecos River area, 

 to trace the eastern limits of the cave culture. One large cave over- 

 looking the Pecos and a medium-sized shelter near Deadmans Canyon 

 were completely excavated. It is not yet practicable to evaluate the 

 results of this third season in the Big Bend area, but the cultuial 

 material recovered obviously belongs to the same horizon as that found 

 farther west. Though a general relationship to the Basket Maker 

 culture of the Southwest is apparent in the material collected both in 

 1932 and 1933, enough distinct characteristics appear in the remains 

 that Mr. Setzler has exposed in Texas to warrant a temporary desig- 

 nation as the Big Bend cave culture. Neither pottery nor any other 

 class of artifact commonly used by archeologists in establishing a 

 relative chronology has yet been found in association with remains 

 peculiar to these cave dwellers of ancient Texas, and no bond has been 

 discovered to connect them definitely with any other primitive group 

 known in the Rio Grange drainage. One result of the 1932 expedition 

 was the finding of 27 bones of the California condor {Gymnogyps 

 calif ornianus) associated with human remains in a cave on the south 

 tip of Mule Ear Peaks. This is the first indication of the former 

 existence of this bird in Texas and is the largest collection of bones 

 recovered outside its present range. In his 1933 investigations, as in 

 those of previous years, Mr. Setzler was greatly assisted by the staff 

 of the United States Bureau of Plant Quarantine at San Antonio. 



