8 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



nomical Journal as a slight aid to its publication, the separate numbers 

 of the journal being sent regularly to foreign libraries and observatories 

 as exchanges of the Institution. 



EXPLORATIONS. 



The explorations of the Institution during the year have beeu car- 

 ried on chiefly through the National Museum and the Bureau of Eth- 

 nology. Natural history and ethnological explorations and studies were 

 made in Kashmir, India, the Seychelles and adjacent islands, by Dr. 

 William L. Abbott; by Professor Cook, in Liberia; by Consul-General 

 Crawford, in Finland, and by other collaborators of the Institution in 

 Central and South America and the West Indies, resulting in very 

 valuable additions to the Museum collection. In New Mexico and Ari- 

 zona, as also in several localities in the Eastern States, arch;eological 

 explorations by the Bureau of Ethnology have added much to our 

 knowledge of the habits and customs of tlie aborigines. The San Juan 

 Yalley and the Canyon de Chelly were fonnd to be rich in remains of 

 ancient American structures, indicating a numerous population. Some 

 of the aboriginal songs of the Kiowa, Arapahoe, and Cheyenne Indians 

 were preserved with the aid of the graphophone. I have on other 

 pages reviewed some of these explorations more in detail. 



A brief abstract of Mr. Ilockhill's explorations in Mongolia and 

 Tibet, in 1891 and 1892, made partly under the auspices of the Insti- 

 tution, was published in the Annual Eeport for 1892. The detailed 

 diary of his journey is now in the hands of the printer, and will form 

 an octavo volume of about 400 pages, with numerous illustrations. 

 This book is believed to be of particular interest at the present time. 



PUBLICATIONS. 



One of the most important functions of the Institution is the diffu- 

 sion of knowledge by means of i)ublications, and in this branch of 

 work the past year has been an active one. Since my last report there 

 have been i)ublished by the Smithsonian and its bureaus twelve vol- 

 umes and eighty-two pamphlets or parts of volumes, aggregating 

 5,854 printed pages, covering practically every branch of natural and 

 physical science. 



The publications of the Institution itself include three principal 

 series — Contributions to Knowledge, the Miscellaneous Collections, 

 and the Annual Reports. The first two are printed at the exi^ense of 

 the Smithsonian fund, while the reports are Government documents. 



Contributions to KnowJeilge. — The Contributions to Knowledge are in 

 quarto form, and are the most important of the series. They include 

 only memoirs of extended original investigations and researches, 

 advancing what are believed to be new truths, and constituting, there- 

 fore, positive additions to human knowledge. Twenty-seven volumes 

 of these have been comijleted since the Institution was founded, 

 including 125 memoirs pertaining to all branches of knowledge. 



