PREFACE, 



A number of years ago the writer undertook the compilation of a 

 bibliography of ^orth American languages, and in the course of his 

 work visited the principal public and private libraries of the United 

 States, Canada, and Northern Mexico; carried on an extensive corre- 

 spondence with librarians, missionaries, and generally with persons 

 interested in the subject, and examined such jirinted authorities as 

 were at hand. The results of these researches were embodied in a 

 volume of which a limited number of copies were printed and distrib- 

 uted — an author's catalogue which included all the material at that 

 time in his possession.^ Since its issue he has had an opportunity to 

 visit the national libraries of England and France, as well as a number 

 of private ones in both these countries, and a sufiBcient amount of new 

 material has been collected to lead to the belief that a fairly complete 

 catalogue of the works relating to each of the more important lin- 

 guistic stocks of North America may be prepared. The first of such 

 catalogues is the present; the second, which it is hoped to issue 

 shortly, will be the Siouan. 



The people speaking the Eskimo language are more widely scattered, 

 and, with i3erhaps two or three exceptions, cover a wider range of ter- 

 ritory than those of any other of the linguistic stocks of North America. 

 From Labrador, on the east, their habitations dot the coast line to the 

 Aleutian Islands, on the west, and a dialect of the language is spoken 

 on the coast of Northeastern Asia. As far north as the white man has 

 gone remains of their deserted habitations are found, and southward 

 they extend, on the east coast to latitude 50° and on the west coast to 

 latitude 60°. "\Yithin this area a number of dialects are spoken, the 

 l)rincipal of which will be found entered herein in their alphabetic 

 order. 



Some difficulty has been encountered in deciding upou the claim of 

 certain titles to admission into the bibliography. There are certain 

 districts,, notably in Alaska and Northeastern Asia, visited or inhabited 

 by Eskimo or people closely allied to them and by other tribes not 

 Eskimo. A vocabulary collected in such a district may be purely 

 Eskimo, or purely not Eskimo, or a mixture containing words in diifer- 

 ent languages and dialects. The vocabularies collected by Norden- 



1 Proof-sheets of a Bibliography of the Languages of the North American Indians, 

 "Washington, 1865, pp. i-xl, 1-1135, 4°. 



