66 JOHN WESLEY POWELL. 



in small grants to scattered workers as a means of increasing their 

 facilities. A large number of persons who were already interested 

 in ethnologic work were provided with the money necessary to 

 meet the expenses of specified undertakings, or payments were 

 made for manuscripts prepared. Others whose occupations afforded 

 them leisure and local opportunity were enlisted in the work and 

 received nominal compensation, not amounting to a salary. 



The class of observation to which most attention was given was 

 linguistic. The Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages con- 

 tained not only a code of instructions but an elaborate set of blanks 

 for the recording of Indian vocabularies; this was widely distrib- 

 uted, and with it went an alphabet specially prepared for the pur- 

 pose, thus enabling the observers to record in a uniform manner 

 the sounds of Indian tongues, many of which are foreign not only 

 to the English but to all European languages. The work of the 

 permanent assistants of the Bureau has been of two kinds : First, 

 a number of students of special branches, largely linguistic, have 

 been enabled through the funds of the Bureau to devote their entire 

 time to research and to extend their studies to minute details. Sec- 

 ond, there have been carried forward works of generalisation and 

 correlation transcending the means of most private individuals and 

 possibly transcending the patience of the unsalaried. One of these 

 is the compilation of a Bibliography of North American Linguistics 

 the segregation once for all of the references to books required 

 by the students who would monograph the subject of an Indian 

 tongue. Another general work is the classification of linguistic 

 stocks and the compilation of a synonymy or dictionary of all the 

 names that have been used to designate Indian languages or In- 

 dian tribes. The number of Indian languages is very large, but 

 certain groups of these are shown, by the existence of many com- 

 mon words or words closely related, to be descendants of the same 

 original tongue. The members of such a group are said to belong 

 to the same linguistic stock, and between two linguistic stocks 

 there are no similarities indicative of common origin. The 'num- 

 ber of linguistic stocks in North America north of Mexico, now for 

 the first time approximately known, is about sixty. 



All of the work of the Bureau was impregnated with the philo- 

 sophic views of its chief. The work he initiated was carried on by 

 methods of his formulation, and the larger share of the work he 

 fostered and endowed had the continuous benefit of his counsel 

 and suggestion. 



The influence of his conversation and informal discussion was 



