ii6 



NA TURE 



[INIarch 25, 1909 



lations for its administration were prepared by the Secre- 

 taries of the Interior, War, and Agriculture, with the 

 cooperation of the Smithsonian Institution, and were 

 promulgated on December 28, 1906, in the form printed 

 in the last report. Under Rule 8, applications for permits 

 are referred to the Smithsonian Institution for recommenda- 

 tion. During the past year several such applications have 

 been acted upon. The conservation of the nation's 

 archaological possessions was regulated by law none too 

 soon to prevent further mutilation or useless destruction 

 of interesting antiquities in many places. 



The President of the United States, by executive pro- 

 clamation during the year, made several additions to the 

 list of national monuments, including three of, archaso- 

 logical interest : — (1) the Tonto National Monument in 

 Arizona, where there are two cliff-dwellings not yet re- 

 ported on ; (2) the Gila Cliff-dwellings National Monu- 

 ment in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico, com- 

 prising a group of cliff-dwellings ; and (3) the Grand 

 Canyon National Monument, which includes a large 

 number of cliff-dwellings, pueblos, dwelling sites, and 

 burial places in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. 



Casa Grande Ruin in Arizona. 



In 1906 Congress granted an appropriation of 3000 dollars 

 to be expended under the supervision of the secretary of 

 the Smithsonian Institution for the preservation of the Casa 

 Grande ruin in Pinal County, near Florence, Ariz., and 

 for the excavation of the reservation. An account of the 

 work accomplished by Dr. Fewkes up to June 30, 1907, 

 was published in the Smithsonian IVIiscellaneous Collec- 

 tions under date of October 25, 1907. The work done 

 during the past fiscal year, under a second appropriation, 

 is noted in an appendix of the present report. The largest 

 structure excavated at Casa Grande is a building 200 feet 

 long with eleven rooms, the massive walls enclosing a 

 plaza. In the central room there is a seat called by the 

 Pima Indians " the seat of Montezuma." The ruins at 

 Casa Grande are found to be very much more extensive 

 than was anticipated, and their permanent preservation is 

 of great archaeological importance. 



In addition to the work of excavation, preservation, and 

 repair of the cliff-dwellings and other prehistoric ruins in 

 the Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, studies have 

 been made of • the prehistoric culture of the. Gila Valley, 

 outside the Casa Grande Reservation. Dr. J. Walter 

 Fewkes. who directed the Mesa Verde explorations, has 

 prosecuted this later research also, and will submit an 

 account in detail of what he has done for publication by 

 the institution. 



Bureau of American Ethnology. 



The Bureau of American Ethnology has continued its in- 

 vestigations among the Indian tribes of the country begun 

 more than a quarter of a century ago. Since it has not 

 been possible to study all of the tribes in detail, a sufficient 

 number have been taken as types to stand for all. The 

 work accomplished in securing knowledge of these tribes 

 has been recorded in the annual reports of the bureau, 

 and the results obtained have been published, so far as 

 circumstances will permit, in bulletins of the bureau. 

 Many manuscripts are preserved in the archives of the 

 bureau. To the present time there have been collected 

 data relating to some sixty families of linguistic stocks 

 and upward of 300 tribes. During the past year this fund 

 of knowledge was added to through researches carried on 

 in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Minnesota, 

 Pennsylvania, and Ontario. 



For the first time the study of native Indian music was 

 seriously taken up by the bureau in connection with certain 

 investigations relating^ to the grand medicine ceremony of 

 the Chippewa on the White Earth Reservation, Minn. 

 The phonograph was employed in recording the songs. 

 Records of songs were also secured from members of 

 various Indian delegations visiting the capit.al. 



This study and recording of the Indian tribes is not only 

 of national importance, but urgent. The native American 

 race, one of the four races of men, is fast disappearing, 

 and the processes of obliteration are sure. If authoritative 

 investigations are not made now, they never can be made 



NO. 2056, VOL. 80] 



with any like degree of accuracy or of thoroughness. It 

 is a work the nation owes to science, to the Indian race, 

 and to itself. It is a work worthy of a great nation, and 

 one w'hich can be carried on systematically only by a 

 nation. Through the researches of the bureau the world 

 is not only securing, while possible, a permanent record 

 of one of the great races of men now dying out, but is 

 gaining a knowledge of the Indian for practical purposes 

 of administration and in the interest of humanity. 



Astrophysical Observatory. 



At Washington the observation of the relative brightness 

 of different parts of the sun's disc has gone forward as 

 there was opportunity. Improved methods of observing 

 and reducing these observations have been adopted. Pre- 

 parations for observing the absorption of water vapoui 

 in long columns of air, for the region of the spectrum ' 

 where rays are chiefly emitted by the earth, have been 

 carried to such a state that preliminary measurements have 

 been made. The investigation is being carried on with a 

 column of moist air about 400 feet in length. 



.\ bolometric study of the solar corona was made on Flint 

 Island, in the Southern Pacific, during the eclipse of 

 January 3, 1908. The intensity and quality of sunlight was 

 determined within twenty-five minutes of totality, both 

 before and after, and during totality measurements were 

 made at five different regions of the corona and on the 

 dark moon. A general summary of the results of these 

 and other observations follows : — 



Intensity of Rays (_obseived through Class). 



Inten^ily for unit 

 angular .irea 



.Sun near zenith, Flint Island ... ... 10,000,000 



Sky 20° from sun, Flint Island ... 140 



Sky far from sun, Flint Island 31 



.Sky average, Flint Island ... ... 62 



Sky average. Mount Wilson, Cal. ... 15 



Moon at night, Flint Island i2(?) 



Moon during eclipse, Flint Island ... o 



Corona ^'^ r;idius from sun ... ... 13 



Corona j radius from sun ... ... 4 



Corona 4 radius from sun ... ... o 



When we recall the extreme brightness of the sky within 

 a single degree of the sun, as compared with that 20' 

 away, and consider also the figures just given, it seems 

 very unlilcely that the corona will ever be observed with- 

 out an eclipse. 



The nature of the radiation of the inner corona has been 

 supposed by some to be principally reflected solar radia- 

 tion, by others to be principally due to the incandescence 

 of particles heated by reason of their proximity to the sun, 

 by others to be principally luminescence perha])s similar 

 to the aurora, and by some as a combination of all these 

 kinds of radiation. 



The spectrum of the corona is mainly continuous, but 

 has some inconspicuous bright lines, and in its outer part 

 has dark solar lines. Undoubtedly there is sunlight re- 

 flected by the matter of the corona, and no less surely the 

 corona must be hot. .^s for the idea of luminescence by 

 electrical discharge, though the streamers of the corona 

 are a reminder of the aurora, one hesitates to recommend 

 an explanation involving a thing so little understood, so 

 that we will here speak only of the incandescence and 

 reflection of the corona as sources of its brightness. The 

 bolometric results indicate that the coronal radiation differs 

 but little in quality from that of the sun, and is, in fact, 

 far richer than the reflected rays of the moon in visible 

 light, although less rich than sky light. 



Great advantage having been found in 1905 and 1006 in 

 making sol.-ir-constant investigations on Mount Wilson as 

 well as in Washington, and strong evidence having been 

 secured there of the considerable variability of. the sun, it 

 was concluded to continue in 190S the expedition to Mount 

 Wilson in order to secure as many observations of the 

 solar constant as possible for the study of solar changes. 



The frequent observation of the solar constant during a 

 period of years at least equal to the sun-spot cycle was 

 regarded by the late director. Dr. Langley, as a research 



