ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT XXXVII 
originated and conducted many enterprises of importance 
to science and to public welfare, but he was finally forced 
by failing health to withdraw from all branches of the pub- 
lic service save that relating to ethnologic research; in 
1893 he resigned the directorship of the Geological Survey 
to devote the remainder of his life to the science of man, 
and as Director of the Bureau of American Ethnology he 
achieved results that establish his claim to lasting renown. 
The Bureau of American Ethnology is peculiarly his, the 
lines of research initiated by him being in the main those 
that must be followed as long as the Bureau lasts—in fact 
as long as the human race remains a subject of study. 
Although the investigations made and directed by Powell 
related almost exclusively to the American race, the results 
are so broad as to apply to all mankind. It wasa fortunate 
circumstance that his energies were directed toa field little 
encumbered by the forms, methods, and determinations of 
earlier students, since it enabled him to conduct his inves- 
tigations on new lines, and thus to raise the science to a 
higher plane. 
The series of volumes published by the Bureau, which 
are more completely Powell’s own than the world can ever 
know, are a splendid monument to his memory, a monu- 
ment that will lose none of its impressiveness as the years 
and generations pass, and when, a little later, the Indian 
race and its unique culture are but shadows on the 
face of the world, and other primitive peoples have like- 
wise passed forever out of view, this monument that 
Powell has reared will stand, not only for himself but for 
the nation, among the most important contributions to 
human history ever made by an individual, an institution, 
or a state. The world of the future, viewing Powell’s 
career, will thank the guiding star that led the farmer boy 
to become a teacher, the teacher a soldier, the soldier an 
explorer, the explorer a geologist, and the geologist the 
historian of a vanishing race. 
