14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



Karankawa and Tonkawa. During the months of May and 

 June another dictionary was prepared, embracuag all the 

 BUoxi linguistic material collected by Doctor Gatschet and 

 Mr. J. 0. Dorsey in 1886, 1892, and 1893. The material 

 in this last work is exceptionally full and complete. The 

 Comecrudo and Cotoname, the material extracted' from 

 Garcia's catechism, and the Biloxi, are nearly ready for the 

 press. The languages referred to above, with the addition 

 of the Natchez, include practically all of those in the eastern 

 and southern United States that are in immediate danger of 

 extinction. The information regarding most of them is very 

 limited, and in order that the precious material may not by 

 any misadventure be destroyed, it should be published at 

 an early date. 



Besides work strictly linguistic, Doctor Swanton had in 

 hand a paper on the tribes of -the lower Mississippi Valley 

 and neighl^oring coast of the Gulf of Mexico. This can not 

 be completed, however, until additional researches among the 

 tribes in question have been made. 



Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, ethnologist, spent July and Aiigust 

 largely in the preparation of his report on the excav^ttion 

 and repair of the Casa Grande ruins, Arizona, during the 

 preceding fiscal year, which was printed in the Smithsonian 

 Miscellaneous Collections for October. 



Doctor Fewkes was in the Southwest from October 24, 

 1907, to the end of the fiscal year. From November to the 

 middle of March he was in charge of the excavation and 

 repair work at Casa Grande, for which there was available 

 the sum of $3,000, appropriated by Congress, to be expended 

 under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. The season's operations at Casa Grande began 

 with excavations in Compound B, the second in size of the 

 great compounds which form the Casa Grande group. This 

 was found to be a rectangular area inclosed by a massive 

 wall; within this are many buildings, the majority of which 

 were once used for ceremonial and communal puiposes. On 

 excavation it was ascertained that the two great pyramids 

 in Compound B are terraced and that the}^ contain seven 



