LXXII BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 
In 1883 Mr ©. C. Royce was employed in the Bureau to col- 
lect and tabulate the various treaties with the Indian tribes 
relating to the cession and transfer of lands. The work was 
substantially completed, and the lands affected by the various 
treaties described in schedules and platted on maps. These 
schedules and maps were duly turned in by Mr Royce and 
were added to the archives of the office for use in connection 
with the more strictly ethnologic researches. Since that date. 
frequent requests for information concerning the Indian land 
treaties have been received, and thereby the value and aceu- 
racy of the work has been fully tested. During the year the 
demand for such information so increased that it was decided 
to submit the material for publication. While the schedules 
and maps were in most respects ready for printing, revision of 
certain portions seemed to be required, and a general introduc- 
tion was thought to be desirable. Accordingly, in November 
the work of revision was assigned to Dr Cyrus Thomas, who 
also undertook the preparation of the requisite introductory 
chapter. The remainder of the fiscal year was spent by Dr 
Thomas chiefly in the completion of this task, which was not 
quite done at the end of that time. 
LINGUISTICS 
As the researches relating to primitive peoples in this and 
other countries progressed, the importance of linguistic studies 
became more and more apparent. Mankind is preeminent 
partly because of a variety of individual characteristics, yet in 
large measure because of social organization; and it is through 
organization that men have been successively raised from sav- 
agery to barbarism, from barbarism to civilization, and from 
simple civilization to the highest enlightenment and humanity. 
Now, the basis of organization is expression, and the art of 
expression is accordingly paramount among the arts of men, 
and ethnologists have found that the grade of development 
and the classific relations of peoples are more justly indicated 
by their arts of oral expression than in any other way. Thus 
the accepted ethnologie classification in this and other coun- 
tries is primarily linguistic. 
