SECRETARY'S REPORT 65 



mately 26 percent less than for the preceding year and necessitated a 

 corresponding reduction in operations. 



Field investigations consisted of reconnaissance or surveys for 

 locating archeological sites and paleontological deposits that will be 

 aflPected by construction work, or are located in areas that will be 

 flooded, and the excavation of sites that previous survey parties had 

 observed and recorded. Following the trend of the preceding year 

 there was much greater emphasis on excavation because the survey 

 parties had in large measure caught up with the general program and 

 there were fewer proposed reservoir areas requiring preliminary 

 study. Reconnaissance parties visited 6 new reservoir basins located 

 in 3 States. Further surveys were made in 7 reservoir areas where 

 some preliminary studies had previously been carried on. They were 

 in 5 different States. At the end of the fiscal year excavations were 

 completed or were underway in 6 reservoir basins in 4 States. During 

 the course of the year there were nine excavating parties in the field. 

 Four of them were in areas where there had been no digging previously. 

 The other five continued investigations at reservoir projects where 

 work was started during prior field seasons. A paleontological party 

 collected materials and made geologic studies in 4 reservoir basins in 3 

 States. By June 30, 1953, reservoir areas where archeological surveys 

 had been made or excavations carried on since the start of the program 

 in 1946 totaled 241 in 27 States. One lock project and four canal 

 areas were also investigated. The survey parties have located and 

 recorded 3,469 archeological sites, and of that number 852 have been 

 recommended for excavation or limited testing. Preliminary ap- 

 praisal reports were completed for all the reservoirs surveyed, and 

 where additional reconnaissance has resulted in the discovery of fur- 

 ther sites supplemental reports have been prepared. Some of those 

 finished during the fiscal year, together with others completed toward 

 the end of the previous year, were mimeogi'aphed for limited distribu- 

 tion to the cooperating agencies. In the course of the year 23 such 

 reports were issued. The total number distributed since the start of 

 the program is 172. The variance between that figure and the total 

 number of reservoirs investigated is partially attributable to the 

 fact that in a number of cases a whole series of reservoirs occurring 

 in a basin or subbasin has been included in a single report. Other 

 completed manuscripts had not yet been mimeographed at the end of 

 the year. Excavations carried on during the year brought the total 

 for reservoir projects where such investigations have been made to 42 

 located in 17 different States. The results of certain phases of some 

 of that work have appeared in various scientific journals, and Bulletin 

 164 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, River Basin Surveys 

 Papers, cont^iining 6 reports, was ready for release on June 30, 1953. 

 Detailed technical reports on 10 additional excavation projects have 



