EEPOET OF THE SECRETARY. 29 



Ou account of the large amount of printing required by the gov- 

 ernment in consequence of the war, the public printing office has been 

 taxed to its utmost power ;, documents not required for immediate 

 use have been delayed, and among others the report of the Institution 

 for 1862 is still not quite completed. It is expected, however, that 

 it will be ready for distribution in the course of a few weeks. The 

 number of copies of the report ordered to be printed by Congress 

 has varied in different years, and consequently in the increasing de- 

 mand some of thiB volumes have been entirely exhausted. It may be 

 a matter of consideration whether a new edition of the report for 

 1856, and perhaps for other years, might not be reprinted. To pre- 

 vent the future exhaustion of the supply of the reports. Congress 

 authorized the stereotyping of the last volume and the printing at any 

 time, from the plates, of the whole or any part of its contents. 



In view of the great cost of paper and the space required for storage, 

 it has been thought advisable to stereotype the Contributions and Mis- 

 cellaneous Collections, and to strike off only as many copies of each 

 article as are required for immediate distribution. By the adoption 

 of this plan, the ability to supply, to any extent, copies of works 

 published hereafter will always exist, while no more need be printed 

 than are actually required. 



Ethnology. — Prom the first, the Institution has given considerable 

 attention to the various branches of ethnology. Besides the addi- 

 tions to Indian archcelogy which are to be found in the several 

 volumes of its Contributions to Knowledge, it has published { jveral 

 papers on languages. In the report for 1860, a list of original aianu- 

 scripts was give,n relating to the languages of the northwest cjast of 

 America, which had been received through the assistance of Mu Alex- 

 ander S. Taylor, of Monterey, California. 



Several of these were copied at the expense of the Institution, 

 with the intention of securing their preservation and subsequent pub- 

 lication. It has also been stated that a number of these manuscripts 

 had been presented to Mr. J. G. Shea, of New York, to be published 

 in a series which he has established under the title of "Library of 

 American Linguistics." By presenting these to Mr. Shea for pub- 

 lication and purchasing from him for distribution to learned societies 

 a number of copies, encouragement has been given to a laudable en- 

 terprize, undertaken solely to promote a favorite branch of learning, 

 and with but little comparative expense to the Smithsonian fund. I 

 regret, however, to state that the diminution of the effective income 

 of the Institution will prevent further appropriations at present for 

 this purpose. The following is a list of the works of Mr. Shea's 



