The Smithsonian Publications 497 



the regular series were also issued. The volume containing 

 the report on the exploration of the Colorado River of the 

 West and its tributaries, by Major J. W. Powell, was pre- 

 pared under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution and 

 printed by order of Congress upon being submitted to that 

 body by the Secretary. Recently the Institution issued, as 

 a separate volume, not to be placed in any of its series, the 

 " Diary of a Journey through Mongolia and Tibet," by 

 William Woodville Rockhill, First Assistant Secretary of 

 State, who undertook an expedition through these countries 

 with the aid of the Institution. 



The Institution has also, in several cases, indirectly aided 

 the publication of valuable scientific memoirs. The most 

 notable of these was the series known as "The Library of 

 American Linguistics," now extremely rare and costly, edited 

 by John G. Shea. The manuscript of some of this series had 

 actually been in the possession of the Institution with a view 

 to publication. Mr. Shea, however, presented a memoir to 

 the Secretary, expressing a desire to publish them all in one 

 series, and asking for the aid of the Institution. They 

 were referred to a commission, of whom E. B. O'Callahan, 

 the well known bibliographer, Jared Sparks, George Gibbs, 

 and Peter Force were members. This commission recom- 

 mended to the Smithsonian Institution that "a subscription 

 which will insure the continuance of these series will be emi- 

 nently within the scope of the foundation, by preserving a 

 number of rapidly perishing monuments of human knowledge, 

 and securing to posterity, in the languages of the native tribes, 

 the surest clue to their origin and affinities." All of these 

 volumes were printed at the Cramoisy Press, in New York, 

 "under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution." To the 

 "Grammar of the Mutsun Language" the following "adver- 

 tisement" was prefixed: 



