REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECKETAKY. 05 



KXPT.O RATIONS. 



Explorations yieldino- uiiiterials of iiiucli value have been conducted 

 Iw members of the scientific staff of the Museum and by others. The 

 impoi'tance of giving* carh' attention to the investigation of th«» eth- 

 nology and natural history of the territories recently acquired by the 

 United States was fully realized, })ut the lack of means has prevented 

 any considerable inquiries in that direction. 



In the interest of the Department of Anthropology, Mr. W. II. 

 Holmes, head curator, visited California in September, 1898, and 

 secured a valuable series of objects illustrating the ethnology and 

 archa?olog3^ of that State. The auriferous gravel region of Calaveras 

 and Tuolumne counties was studied, and man^^ stone implements, sup- 

 posed to have a bearing upon the occupation of that area ])y Tertiary 

 man, were obtained. The ancient soapstone quarries and two prehis- 

 toric burial places in Santa Catalina Island were examined, and a num- 

 ber of relics were taken from the latter. The ethnological collection 

 brought home by Mr. Holmes consisted in greater part of examples of 

 the basketry, implements, etc., of the Porno, Digger, and Tulare 

 Indians. 



Mr. Holmes also spent the month of April, 1890, in Mexico, where 

 he obtained an important collection from the site of the ancient Aztec 

 obsidian mines in the State of Hidalgo, besides a number of relics from 

 the ancient cities of San Juan Teotihuacan and Xochicalco. 



The autumn of 1898 and a part of the following winter were spent 

 in Cuba by Mr. Paul Beckwith, of the Division of History, with the 

 object of gathering material of historical interest relating to the war 

 with Spain. He was successful in obtaining many valuable objects 

 and also in enlisting the cooperation of military men and others in con- 

 tinuing the collecting. 



Dr. George F. Becker, of the United States Geological Survey, for 

 which he has been carrying on investigations in the Philippine Islands, 

 has kindly agreed to look after the interests of the Museum in the 

 same region. 



Mr. J. B. Hatcher, sent to Patagonia on an extensive scientific mis- 

 sion l)y Princeton University, has also entered into an arrangement 

 to supply ethnological material to the National Museum, and one 

 important lot has been received from him. 



In May, 1899, Dr. Walter Hough was detailed to carry on ethno- 

 botanical researches in Mexico in connection with certain explorations 

 by the Division of Botanv in charge of Dr. J. N. Rose. Earlier in 

 the year Doctor Hough had made a collection of potters' tools and sev- 

 eral hundred pieces of pottery in West Virginia. 



Mr. E. W^. Nelson, while on a l)otanical expedition to Mexico, under 

 the Department of Agriculture, secured a large number of archa?ologi- 

 NAT MUS 99 5 



