ADMINISTRATIVE REPOET. XXXIII 



Prof. Cyrus Thomas was engaged during the year cliietly 

 ill the preparation of his report on the exploration of the 

 mound area of the United States, which appears in the present 

 volume, and in other office work necessary in connection with 

 the publication of a bulletin entitled "Catalogue of Prehistoric 

 Works East of the Rocky Mountains," printed during the 

 fiscal year though not issued until after its close. He was 

 also occupied in the preparation of maps for that bulletin and of 

 illustrations for his general report. It was intended at first 

 that the whole of that report should occupy two volumes as a 

 part of the series of Contributions to North American Ethnol- 

 ogy, but it was found convenient to divide it between the 

 present volume and the bulletin mentioned. As this change 

 of plan necessitated some modifications in the manuscript, the 

 opportunity was embraced to incorporate additional data 

 obtained through recent observations and correspondence. 



Mr. W: H. Holmes included in his office work the prepara- 

 tion of papers on pottery, shell, textile fabrics, pipes, and other 

 productions of the mound-building tribes, and the writing of 

 reports on the numerous explorations made during the year. 

 These reports have been brought up to date and are on file. 

 He has adopted the policy of preparing reports on field work 

 for file as the work proceeds, and his assistants are expected at 

 the close of each separate piece of exploration or unit of study 

 to make a i-eport relating to it of a sufficiently finished nature 

 to serve the purposes of record and reference in case of their 

 disability or separation from the office. 



Rev. J. Owen Dorsey prepared the index to his monograph, 

 "The (pegiha, Language-:— Myths, Stories, and Letters," and read 

 the proof sheets of the second part of that volume, which has 

 since been published as Vol. vi of Contributions to North 

 American Ethnology. He resumed his work on the (pegiha- 

 English dictionary, inserting many new words occurring in the 

 texts, and referring to each new word by page and line. He 

 devoted considerable time to the tribal synonymy of the 

 Athapascan, Caddoan, Kusan, Siouan, Takilman, and Yakonan 

 families; comparing authorities, writing historical sketches of 

 the tribes, gentes, and villages of these linguistic families, and 



12 ETH III 



