MUSEUM NOTES 77 



The Executive Committee, at its meeting of January 17, appointed 

 Mr. Charles W. Mead assistant curator in the department of anthropology, 

 the appointment to take effect January 1, 1912. 



Two volumes (XXIX and XXX) of the Museum Bulletin were 

 published during the year 1911. \'olume XXIX is devoted to a single 

 subject, "A Synonymic Index Catalogue of American Spiders" by Dr. 

 Alexander Petrunkevitch, honorary curator of Arachnida in the American 

 Museum. The work comprises all the species known to inhabit the two 

 American continents and their adjacent islands, from Greenland to Pata- 

 gonia. It forms a volume of nearly 800 pages, and consists of three parts — 

 (1) Bibliography, (2) List of species with s\nonyms and reference, (3) 

 Alphabetic index to synonyms. Types are designated for the genera, and 

 the localities are given from which the species have been recorded. It is 

 thus an indispensable reference book for all arachnologists. 



Volume XXX contains about 400 pages, 17 plates, and about 150 text 

 figures, and gives some of the results of the work of the scientific staflF for 

 the year. Among the sixteen papers, one of much general interest by 

 Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, on "Revealing and Concealing Coloration 

 in Birds and Mammals," has been noticed in an earlier number of the 

 Journal (Vol. XI, Oct., 1911, p. 200). 



In 1908 the department of anthropology sent an expedition to James 

 Bay, Canada, in charge of Mr. Alanson Skinner, to study the Eastern Cree 

 Indians. The party went in by the Missinaibi River. The next year the 

 party made a second journey, this time down the Albany River. The total 

 distance tra^■eled by canoe and on foot was some twenty-four hundred 

 miles. The scientific results of these journeys ha^'e just appeared.' While 

 hardships made a complete investigation impossible, this paper gives 

 nevertheless descriptive data on almost every phase of the Cree and Saul- 

 teaux culture. The information on food habits and hunting customs is 

 satisfactory and the collection of Cree tales and myths indicates clearly their 

 tribal relationshii)s. The author believes that the Cree have a culture 

 intermediate between that of the Eskimo on the north and the Woodland 

 Indians on the south, best designated perhaps by the term sub-arctic. 

 Particularly interesting are the notes on the use of grooved stone axes, 

 stone knives, and otlicr priiniti\'e tools till recently in occasional use. It is 

 often necessar\' to remind the general reader that the Stone .Vge was l)Ut a 

 condition and not an absolute jjcriod. Another interesting point is full 

 data upon tyj)ical bciu'-hiinting ceremonies among the Saulteaux, a feature 

 so far not adequately (lescril)e(l. Also a unicjue and almost extinct type of 

 basket wea\e was found. 



' Notes on the Eastekn Chee and Northern- Saulteatx. By Alanson Skinner, 

 pp. 178, plates 2, figs. .57, Anthropological Papers, A. M. N. H., Part I. Vol. IX. 



