34 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



from vandalism and to preserve them for the benefit of future gen- 

 erations. 



There is present need of ethnological researches among the tribal 

 remnants of the Mississippi basin, since the opportunities for making 

 and preserving a permanent record of the aborigines which played 

 such an important part in the early history of the Middle West are 

 rapidly passing. 



Ethnological researches should also be made in the Hawaiian 

 Islands and in Samoa. Little reliable information regarding the 

 ethnology of these insular possessions has been recorded, and it is 

 hoped that Congress may soon provide the means for initiating among 

 their natives researches of the same general character as those now 

 being conducted among the American Indian tribes. 



The various lines of ethnological studies carried on by the Bureau 

 during the past year are presented in detail in the appendix to the 

 present report. 



The removal of some divisions of the National Museum to the new 

 Museum building afforded an opportunity for the transfer in Decem- 

 ber last of the offices and library of the Bureau of American Eth- 

 nology from rented quarters to the Smithsonian building. It was 

 found desirable at the same time to reorganize the office force, Mr. 

 Holmes, Chief of the Bureau for several years, having resumed the 

 office of head curator of the Department of Anthropology in the 

 National Museum. 



With a view to economy in the transaction of the routine business 

 of the Bureau, much of the clerical and all the laboring work was 

 concentrated by placing the routine correspondence and files, the ac- 

 counts, the shipment of publications, and the care of supplies and 

 other property in immediate charge of the office of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. It was thus found possible to render a larger proportion 

 of the annual appropriation available for research work. 



INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES. 



Several additional governments have entered into the immediate 

 exchange of their parliamentary records during the past year, 26 

 countries now taking part in this exchange with the United States. 

 A list of the countries to which the daily issue of the Congressional 

 Record is sent will be found in the appended report on the exchanges. 

 The Institution is still in correspondence with other governments re- 

 garding this immediate exchange, and from time to time additions 

 will no doubt be made to the list of those countries participating. It 

 may be stated, in this connection, that the exchange here alluded to is 

 separate and distinct from the exchange of official documents which 

 has existed between the United States and other countries for a num- 

 ber of years. 



