PROCEEDINGS OF THE REGENTS. 203 



I am very much afraid that the amount of information proposed to be con- 

 tained in the ethnological map will render it confused. I would suggest whether 

 it would not be better to have two maps — one showing the character of the 

 -country, whether forest or prairie, desert or arable, with the isothermal lines, &c ; 

 the other, its counterpart, containing merely the principal topographical features, 

 such as the rivers and main chains of mountains, upon which the boundaries 

 and names of the tribes and local names should appear. The first might indeed 

 have designated upon it the boundaries of the families, but should not be colored. 

 The latter to be colored and show the tribal subdivisions. 



Begging to apologize for the length of this communication, I am, very truly, 

 your obedient servant, 



GEORGE GIBBS. 



Professor Joseph Henry, 



Secretary Smithsonian Institution, Washington. 



November 18, 1862. 



In regard to the proposed map of the continent mentioned in your letter of 

 the 1 3th, I have the honor to submit the following suggestions : The prepara- 

 tion of a base map to serve for these various uses is a subject of the greatest 

 interest to every one concerned in scientific pursuits, and will form a lasting 

 monument of the wisdom and efficiency of the Smithsonian Institution. The 

 urgent need of such a one is evident from the fact that I have been unable 

 to procure in this city a tolerably correct and recent map, embracing the whole 

 continent on a scale of convenient size for ethnological purposes, and have actu- 

 ally been compelled to send to Germany for one, The scale recommended by 

 Mr. Morgan strikes me as very suitable. In my remarks upon his propositions 

 I meant only to object to the introduction upon a strictly ethnological map of 

 the details of topography, meteorology, and hypsometry. My own idea, in 

 which I am supported by other gentlemen engaged in the same pursuit, is, that 

 an ethnological map should exhibit the principal features of the country, the 

 rivers, mountain chains, and particularly the passes in the mountains, and the 

 great Indian trails, where the nature of the country was such as to render these 

 fixed and distinct; that it should also have the nomenclature fully given, in the 

 popidar form to enable collectors in the field to decide upon exact localities, but in 

 such a type as to distinguish the popular from the true Indian names. Where, 

 aa I shall presently suggest, sectional maps on a larger scale are prepared, this 

 nomenclature may, however, better be confined on the general map to a few main 

 objects, such as the larger rivers, in order to avoid perplexity. Political divi- 

 sions should be as few as possible and faintly indicated. Indeed, in an ethno- 

 logical point of view, they are almost worthless, as ours are generally arbitrary 

 and not founded on geographical features. 



Besides this general map, I would also have a series of maps on a larger 

 scale, comprising particular sections of country, having direct reference to 

 the distribution of tribes and families. Thus, for instance, one map might 

 show the country occupied by the different tribes of the Dakota, another of the 

 Snake or Shoshonee, &c. The advantage of this would be, that whereas in the 

 general map a single color must be used to indicate a great family, composed of 

 numerous tribes, and its subdivisions could not be indicated without leading to 

 confusion, these collateral maps could be made to exhibit the districts occupied 

 by each. This is very important where the languages spoken by various tribes 

 differ greatly, as among the Snakes, the Bannak from the Ute, and that from 

 the Comanche. The scale on which these sub-maps should be constructed 

 would vary greatly, depending upon two points: first, the number of tribes oc- 

 cupying a given region ; second, upon the amount of minute information likely 

 to be acquired. On the western coast of America, or that district lying between 

 the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountains and the sea, there are a great number 



