ADMINISTRATIVE EEPORT XCV 



by the reputation achieved in his favorite field; even before the 

 completion of the accompanying memoir he was chosen as the 

 head of the department of anthropology in the Field Columbian 

 Museum, and tendered a ]n'ofessorship in C'hicago University. 

 His standing and ([ualihcations may be characterized the more 

 freely because he is no longer connected with the Bureau. 



Something of the comprehensive and painstaking methods 

 pursued in the work may be gleaned from Professor Holmes' 

 memoir; yet the breadth and soundness of his foundation are 

 hai'dly suggested by the details of the superstructure. As a 

 geologist on the Hayden Survey of the Territories and later on 

 the United States Geological Survey, he had occasion to trav- 

 ei'se the western plains, the Rocky Moimtain region, and the 

 plateau country, nearly all the way from the Canadian bound- 

 ary on the north to the MexicaH frontier on the south, and this 

 in early days while yet the Indians were numerous and retained 

 their aboriginal characteristics. Accordingly he had many 

 opportunities for ethnologic observation, and was led by pre- 

 vious training to give special attention to the manual arts of 

 the tribesmen; indeed, it was chiefly his contact with the Indians 

 in the course of his geologic work that induced him to take up 

 systematic studies of aboriginal arts and handicraft During 

 this stage of his career he learned to think as the Indian thinks 

 about the simple native arts; he learned to imitate aboriginal 

 methods and manipulations in the manufacture of stone; and 

 he learned to interpret relics of primitive culture as they are 

 interpreted l)y primitive minds. Thus when he turned to the 

 examination of aljoriginal relics in eastern United States his 

 equipment in actual knowledge concerning the details of 

 primitive art was exceptionally — indeed almost singularly — 

 complete. 



Taking up the study in a favorably conditioned province, he 

 first acquainted himself with the work of previous investigators 

 of the locality and with the researches and opinions of arch- 

 eologists generally. He then entered the field and, with a force 

 of laborers always under his eye, made extensive excavations 

 and examined a body of material unprecedented in quantity. 

 The specimens actually examined and studied could be enum- 



