REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM; 1907. 51 



James River, near one of their villages. Capt. John Smith and his 

 men arc in a sailboat 22 feet long and 8 feet wide; some of the 

 Indians are in a canoe alongside exchanging corn and skins for heads, 

 blankets, hatchets, looking-glasses, and the like; while some are on 

 the bank offering fruit. Other groups show the aborigines engaged 

 in making implements, the costumes worn by the Virginia planter 

 and his wife, the Dutch patroon and his wife, the Puritan and his 

 wife, and a Spanish soldier and lad v. 



Another feature of special interest is a frieze around the hall of 

 colored portraits of 180 persons prominent in American history, 

 beginning with Christopher Columbus and including the most 

 famous explorers, soldiers, sailors, philanthropists, authors, jurists, 

 artists, scientists, inventors, and architects. Below this frieze the 

 wall space is occupied by a collection of engravings, paintings, and 

 photographs of historic scenes and events in American history, in- 

 cluding 50 colored drawings of Indians, facsimilies of those made 

 in 1585 by Governor John White. The principal events in the 

 development of photography and in medical science are also repre- 

 sented by special exhibits. 



International Maritime Exposition at Bordeaux. — This exposition, 

 which opened on May 1 of the present calendar year and will close 

 on October 31, is the outcome of a plan conceived by the French 

 Maritime League to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the 

 beginning of steam navigation. The United States Government was 

 invited through the French Ambassador to participate, and Congress 

 voted the sum of $15,000 to meet the necessary expenses. At the 

 request of the Secretary of State the Smithsonian Institution agreed 

 to undertake the preparation, installation, and maintenance of a 

 Government exhibit, and Mr. W. de C. Ravenel, Administrative 

 Assistant of the Museum, was placed in charge" as the representative 

 of the Smithsonian Institution. Of the amount appropriated the 

 sum of $8,000 was allotted for this purpose, but owing to the late 

 date at which Congress took action it was impossible to complete 

 the installation at Bordeaux until the 1st of July. 



The objects selected from the National Museum consist in part of 

 a number of models illustrating the boats and other water craft used 

 by the aborigines of the Western Hemisphere, and show the effect 

 of environment on structural materials. They have been arranged 

 geographically from Point Barrow, in Alaska, to the Straits of Magel- 

 lan, and include the Eskimo kaiak and the skin canoe of Arctic 

 waters; the dugout of the Pacific coast, and the birch-bark canoe 

 of Canada, the Eastern States, and the Great Lakes; the old form 

 of canoe made from a single tree trunk by the Indians of Virginia; 

 the coracle or "bull boat " of the Sioux, made of skin stretched over 

 a crate, and the reed cane float of the early inhabitants of Nevada, 



