ADMINISTEATIVE REPORT 13 



of the University of California; Mr. Frank G. Speck, of the 

 University of Pennsylvania; JVIr. C. C. Willoughby, of the 

 Peabody Museum; Dr. Clark Wissler, of the American 

 Museum of Natural History. I take this occasion to express 

 the appreciation of the Bureau for the valued aid so gener- 

 ously rendered by these specialists, without which it would 

 not have been possible to make the work either as complete 

 or as accurate as it is. 



Throughout the year Mr. James Mooney, etlinologist, 

 remained in the office, occupied either in the preparation of 

 articles intended for the second part of the Handbook of 

 American Indians or in preparing answers to ethnologic 

 inquiries made by correspondents of the Bureau. His prui- 

 cipal work for the Handbook was an elaborate and detailed 

 study of the nimierical strength of the aboriginal population 

 north of Mexico prior to disturbance by the whites. This 

 important foundation study of American ethnology has 

 never before been undertaken m a systematic and comprehen- 

 sive manner, and the result proves of much scientific interest. 

 Contrary to the opinion frequently advanced on superficial 

 investigation, the Indians have not increased in number since 

 their first contact with civilized man, but have decreased by 

 fully two-thirds, if not three-fomths. California alone, the 

 most populous large section during the aboriginal period, 

 contained probably as many Indians as are now officially 

 recognized in the whole United States. The causes of de- 

 crease in each geographic section are set forth in detail in 

 chronologic sequence in Mr. Mooney's study. 



During the year Dr. John R. Swanton, ethnologist, was 

 occupied entirely with work in the office, principally in con- 

 nection with the Indian languages of Louisiana and Texas. 

 He finished the analytic dictionary of the Tunica language 

 and compiled similar dictionaries of Chitimacha, Attacapa, 

 and Tonkawa. All the extant Comecrudo and Cotoname 

 material, as well as the material pertaining to related tribes 

 contained in Fray Bartholome Ciarcia's Manual para admin- 

 istrar los sacramentos (Mexico, 1760), was similarly arranged, 

 and in addition a comparative vocabulary was constructed 

 which embraces the last-mentioned data as well as the 



