66 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1824 



outcome is the enlargement of the Bureau of American Ethnology 

 into a bureau devoted to the study of all races. 



Even in studying the Indians there are great regions of South 

 America which are practically unknown to the ethnologist. South 

 America, next to Central America, contains examples of probably 

 the highest culture that has ever been attained by the American 

 race. I refer, of course, to the civilization of the great empire of 

 the Incas, extending from the Isthmus of Panama to southern Chile. 

 In this prolific field the bureau has done comparatively little, and 

 the time is now ripe for an extensive exploration in that field. No 

 less important in South America is the area inhabited by wild 

 tribes, such as the Matto Grosso and other regions east of the moun- 

 tains. The remarkable similarity of the culture of the Indians in 

 Argentina and that of the pueblos especially pleads for more thor- 

 ough investigation of the former area. The great valley of the 

 Amazon, that has attracted the ethnologist since the wonderful 

 voyage of Alex. Von Humboldt at the beginning of the last cen- 

 tury, still holds out new problems. 



The bureau will soon issue a remarkably complete work by Dr. 

 Walter E. Eoth on British Guiana, which probably will be one of 

 the finest it has ever published. It adds much to our knowledge, but 

 no more important fact than the magnitude of the numerous fields 

 remaining to be investigated in northern South America. The lan- 

 guages, sociology, religion, arts, history, and archeology of almost 

 every country in South America demand research. Here we have a 

 great continent awaiting the student of the antiquity and cultural 

 relationship of the American race. 



In the same way the field of Central America and Mexico now 

 awaits the investigator, although in that particular area the bureau 

 has made some very important contributions. 



There remain special problems of secondary nature throughout 

 the continent that are as yet unanswered which would be within the 

 scope of the bureau's work. All ethnological work on the South 

 American Indians should have very great influence in uniting more 

 firmly the republics of Spanish origin and the United States. 



Of the many problems awaiting investigation, one of the more 

 important is the plotting of the trails by which communication was 

 carried on between Indian tribes. These trails historically followed 

 by roads and railroads now serve the growing habit of the automo- 

 bile and the desire of Americans to see their own country. A study 

 of the foods used by the Indians has a practical value which can not 

 be overestimated. The nmnber of plants used by the Indians far 

 outnumbers those on our own table, and the bureau might well give 

 attention to the discovery of new food resources. 



