44 EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



relating to them, and are so placed at the Museum as to be convenient for study by 

 the various collectors in preparing their reports and ])y students generally. 



MANUSCRIPTS. 



Of peculiar value and interest are the manuscripts brought together in the archives 

 of the Bureau. They number upward of 1,600 and relate chiefly to the Indian lan- 

 guages. Three hundred and thirty-two of these documents were transferred to the 

 Bureau on its organization by the Smithsonian Institution. Many others have been 

 jjresented to the Bureau since that time, while a large number have been purchased 

 from the authors. Not a few have been prepared by employees of the Bureau, and, 

 because fragmentary or not fully elaborated, have been filed awaiting completion and 

 for reference. A valual)le body of linguistic data is thus preserved and available for 

 the use of students. Besides the linguistic material many miscellaneous manuscripts 

 and documents have accumulated. A few of these are historical, but^the majority 

 relate to the aborigines. These manuscripts are kept in two fireproof vaults in the 

 main office and have been recently placed under the custodianship of Mr. J. N. B. 

 Hewitt, ethnologist. 



PUBLICATIONS. 



Historij of Oie series. — When the United States Geographical and Geological Survey 

 of the Rocky Mountain Region was discontinued, by act of Congress approved March 

 3, 1879, it had published two volumes (1 and 3) of a quarto series of Contributions to 

 North American Ethnology. The same act made an a])proi3riation for completing and 

 preparing for publication other volumes of the series. The work was put in charge of 

 Maj. J. W. Powell, previously Director of the Rocky Mounta-rn Survey, and the 

 Bureau of Ethnology was organized. The new Bureau continued the publication of 

 the Contributions, and in 1880 the Director began a series of annual reports of prog- 

 ress to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, which were published, with 

 accompanying scientific papers, in handsomely illustrated royal octavo volumes. 

 The printing of the volumes of both series was at first specially authorized by Con- 

 gressional resolutions, but on March 2, 1881, volumes 6 to 10 of the Contributions 

 were provided for by a single resolution. 



Under authority of a joint resolution of August 5, 1886, the Director of the Bureau 

 commenced in the -following year the publication of a series of bulletins in octavo 

 form, unbound, which was continued by authority of the concurrent resolution of 

 July 28, 1888. The puljlic printing act of January 28, 1895, which superseded all 

 previous acts and resolutions relating to jiublic printing and binding, provided for 

 the continuance of the series of annual reports only. At that time there had been 

 published, or were in course of publication, 8 volumes of Contributions to North 

 American Ethnology, numbered 1-7 and 9, 24 bulletins, and 13 annual reports. 



From 1895 to 1900 the Bureau issued the series of annual reports only, l)ut on 

 April 7 of the latter year Congress passed a concurrent resolution authorizing the 

 commencement of a new series of bulletins in royal octavo, uniform with the annual 

 reports. Three numbers of this series (25 to 27) have been issued. The present 

 edition of both aimual reports and bulletins is 9,682 copies, of which the Senate 

 receives 1,500, the House 3,000, and the Bureau 3,500 (of which 500 are distributed 

 by the Smithsonian Institution). From the remaining 1,682 are drawn the personal 

 copies of the members of Congress, those for the Library of Congress and a few other 

 Government libraries, and those sold by the Superintendent of Documents and 

 distributed by him to various libraries throughout the country. 



Besides the series mentioned there have been issued small editions of several mis- 

 cellaneous publications intended chiefly or wholly for the use of collaborators and 

 correspondents. These comprise three introductions to the study of aboriginal 

 activities (one having been previously published by the Rocky Mountain Survey); a 



