ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT LIX 



NECROLOGY 



James Constantine Pilling-, who died July 26, 1895, was a 

 native of the national capital, where he was born November 

 16, 1846. He was educated in the public schools and Gon- 

 zaga College, and subsequently strengthened his predilection 

 toward books by taking a position in a leading bookstore of 

 the city; at the same time he studied the then novel art of 

 stenography, in which he became remarkably proficient. At 

 the age of twenty he was a])pointed a court stenographer. 

 His services soon came into demand among the Congressional 

 committees and in different commissions employed in the settle- 

 ment of war claims. In every instance his notable speed and 

 accuracy were joined with even more notable discretion and 

 straightforwardness that gained for him the esteem of all with 

 wliom he came in contact. His career as stenogi'apher was in 

 every respect exemplary, and his example served to hasten the 

 ereneral introduction, and at the same time to elevate the 

 standard, of stenographic art as an aid in the transaction of 

 the public business. 



Ill 1875 Mr Pilling was employed by the Director, then in 

 charge of the Geographical and Geological Survey of the 

 Rocky Mountain Region, to aid in collecting native vocabula- 

 ries and traditions, a task for which he was eminently fitted by 

 reason of his phonetic and manual skill. In this service as in 

 his earlier work he displayed not only high ability but signal 

 streng-th of character. His connection with the Survey was 

 continued until that organization was brought to an end in 

 1879 by the institution of the United States Geological 

 Survey to carry forward the geologic work, and the Bureau 

 of American Ethnology to continue the ethnologic researches; 

 he was then transferred to the latter Bureau, where his work 

 on tlie Indian languages was continued. During this period 

 of connection with ethnologic work his studious habits were 

 strengthened, and he develo})ed great interest in the literature 

 relating to the Indians; so that he readily adopted the sugges- 

 tion of the Director to begin the preparation of a list of books 

 and papers containing Indian linguistics. In this study the 

 industry and accuracy which characterized his stenographic 



