202 PROCEEDINGS OF THE REGENTS. 



tion to modify and enlarge the latter, but on a full review of the subject, 

 including a list of proposed words, and on consultation with Mr. Shea, I con- 

 cluded not to do so without reference to yourself. With certain defects it is 

 yet a very judicious selection, and it has already been used so largely that a 

 change may now be injudicious. Still, if you think best, I will advise with 

 Shea, Squier, and Bartlett, and with them prepare a catalogue of additional 

 words as an appendix. I am of opinion, however, that the instructions will lead 

 collectors in the right track. 



I had also intended to have the circular translated into French here, but the 

 health of the person from whom I expected this assistance is too bad to allow 

 him to do it at present, and I do not wish to detain it longer. I would recom- 

 mend that a translation be made into Spanish, (Mexican,) French, and German, 

 both of this circular, if adopted, and the one on archaeology. To save trouble 

 with the vocabulary, I send a duplicate blank. There are many French priests 

 both in the Hudson's Bay country and in Oregon ; the Spanish, or rather Mexi- 

 can, priests in New Mexico, California, and elsewhere, may prove valuable 

 assistants, and among the Germans, even many soldiers in the army, are excel- 

 lently fitted to collect, and well disposed to do so. It will be well to send a 

 number, say one hundred copies, to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to be distributed 

 among the agents; an additional hundred to the Bureau of Topographical Engi- 

 neers; a like number to the Surveyor General of the Land Office, for the use of 

 his department; and to the Secretaries of State and of the Navy, for distribution 

 among our consuls and officers bound to the western coast of Mexico, and else- 

 where. The governor of the Hudson's Bay Company can, I presume, be also 

 interested in the subject, and though last, not least, the governor of Russian 

 America. 



One thing that escaped my memory in preparing the archaeological circular, 

 was to say that due credit would be given to collectors. It will be better, how- 

 ever, if you prefix the whole by an official notice emanating from yourself to 

 this effect. An acknowledgment from the head of an institution like the 

 Smithsonian is a great inducement to exertion. 



I see in the last annual report Mr. Morgan's circular respecting an archaeo- 

 logical map. If you recollect, this was one of the points which I proposed to 

 embrace in my work. I think not only of preparing a general map of North 

 America, embodying the great families, but special maps of* particular districts 

 inhabited by a large number of tribes, included in a few families, who live 

 within a small space. Such are Russian and British America, Washington 

 Territory, Oregon, and California, for all of which I possess minute information. 

 Mr. Bartlett has furnished me with the ranges of the New Mexican and Texan 

 tribes, and I have material from other sources covering other parts of the 

 country. Of course, all this, with the consent of the bureau, will belong to the 

 Smithsonian, and I have no wish to monopolize the merit of such a work; but 

 as I know that no one else possesses the material that I do, at least of the 

 country west of the Rocky mountains, I should be unwilling to relinquish to 

 another so important a task. Besides this, until the comparison of the languages 

 is completed, the ethnological part of the map cannot be perfected. 



I would, therefore, suggest that skeleton maps be issued, as soon as prepared, 

 to various persons interested in ethnology, and who are familiar with particular 

 regions, to be filled up with such information as they may possess, to be after- 

 wards reduced, giving to each the credit of his contributions. Mr. Shea, Mr. 

 Bartlett, General Charles P. Stone, Mr. Buckingham Smith, Dr. Hayden, and 

 other gentlemen, can all add largely to such a work. I have already trans- 

 mitted departmental maps to each Territory, under the sanction of the Indian 

 bureau. Permit me, further, to recommend that the proposed map should 

 extend far enough north to embrace all the Esquimaux tribes; and west, to take 

 in the sedentary Tchuktchi or Namollos of Russian Asia. 



