Director's Annual Report. 13 
on Lanai known to Mr. Wagener, and carried out with the permis- 
sion of the Lanaiagents. We were wellsatisfied with the results. 
‘‘T might say here that I was in continual attendance on Pro- 
fessor von Luschan in the field and laboratory during the month 
of his visit. Coming direct from the centre of modern anthro- 
pological study, as he does, and being in fact the leader in the sub- 
ject, I received great benefit from the observation of his methods 
and the instruction he was ready toimpart. ‘There is one matter 
in which Professor von Luschan has demonstrated that we have 
been clearly derelict inourduty. Heexpected to find in a museum 
of this size and location, three thousand weli authenticated Ha- 
waiizn skulls. He found but fifty skulls all told, very few of 
which were Hawaiian. ‘These we have been content to gather as 
occasionally met with, expecting that at some future date the feel- 
ings of the present Hawaiians in regard to the gathering of their 
ancestors’ bones might be modified by time and education as in 
other countries.* The trips to Waimanalo and Lanai have fur- 
nished the Professor with an excellent subject on which to base 
his lectures for our benefit. The condition of the bones made it 
only too apparent that even in these dunes, composed of lime sand, 
each on the dry side of the respective islands (the most favorable 
locality for the preservation of bony material under ground), it 
would be only a very few years before the skeletons would be too 
decayed to be worth collecting. He says that we owe it to Science 
to gather as many authenticated Hawaiian skeletons as we can 
accommodate and store—at least five hundred—so that the record 
of the Hawaiian proportions will not be lost. 
‘‘Considerable time has been given to the Kahoolawe collec- 
tion in seeking a satisfactory method of handling the subject, both 
in regard to cataloguing and description. ‘There have been pub- 
*In 1865 I was able to ship some five barrels of Hawaiian crania to Boston. 
Many of these were collected in the sand beyond Diamond Head; others in 
the sands of the isthmus of Maui. Fine specimens were in my collection and 
these were measured by Dr. Jeffries Wyman of Harvard University. I wish 
indeed I had as good a collection in this Museum.—W. T. B. 
[53] 
