50 ANl^TOAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 195 



the Indian languages of New England that is still spoken. Abnaki 

 forms throw considerable light on the closely related, extinct Massa- 

 chusetts language in which the famous Eliot Indian Bible is written. 

 The earliest vocabulary, or vocabularies, of the Abnaki language re- 

 sulted from the work of French missionaries in the Kennebec Valley, 

 but the work has been lost. The maps and writings of Capt. John 

 Smith, Champlain, and Lescarbot carry a number of Abnaki place 

 names. The earliest extensive Abnaki vocabulary is that attributed 

 to Capt. George Weymouth and was probably taken down by him in 

 1605 from Abnald Indians whom he captured near the St. George 

 Islands, off the eastern end of Penobscot Bay, and took to England. 

 This vocabulary was first printed in 1625. In 1691, 86 years after 

 the Weymouth Abnaki vocabulary had been made, a young French 

 missionary priest named Sebastian Rasles arrived in Canada and 

 compiled his vast French-Abnaki dictionaiy. This dictionary was 

 captured by the English at the battle of Norridgewock in 1724 and 

 was first printed in 1833. 



On February 9, 1950, Dr. Harrington proceeded to Merida, Yuca- 

 tdn, for the purpose of studying the Maya language. A tape recorder 

 was taken along and 10 half-hour recordings of stories told in the 

 Maya language were obtained. Dr. Han'ington returned to Wash- 

 ington on April 11, bringing with him a large quantity of linguistic 

 material. 



At the invitation of the Canadian Government, Dr. Henry B. 

 Collins, Jr., conducted archeological investigations on Cornwallis 

 Island in the northern part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. 

 Excavations were made at four prehistoric Eskimo village sites at 

 Resolute Bay on the south side of the Island. Dr. Collins and his 

 assistant, Jean P. Michea, reached Resolute by plane on May 27 after 

 brief stops at Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island, and at Thule in north- 

 west Greenland. The work contiimed until August 23, 1949. The 

 numerous house ruins on Cornwallis and neighboring islands show 

 that this now uninhabited region once supported a sizable Eskim.o 

 population. The Cornwallis Island structures — built of stones, 

 whalebones, and turf — proved to have been made by the Thule 

 Eskimos, a prehistoric group that originated in Alaska and later 

 spread eastward to Canada and Greenland. A large collection of 

 artifacts was obtained which, after study, will be divided between the 

 Smithsonian and the National Museum of Canada, joint sponsors of 

 the work. As the natural history of Cornwallis Island is so little 

 known, an attempt was made to collect representative samples of 

 fossils, minerals, vascular plants, mosses and lichens, insects, and 

 fresh-water invertebrates. 



