52 SMITHSONIAN MISCFXLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I07 



edonia and the Solomons, were answered by reference to special in- 

 stitutions. On the whole, however, few requests were of such a 

 nature as to require the services of the academic centers. 



Facts 



In some cases the Board furnished factual answers to questions. 

 Apparently most of this type of information service was done by 

 telephone, because the recorded questions and factual answers are 

 neither numerous nor too impressive. To be sure, all factual ques- 

 tions about personnel and sources are excluded from this category. 



The types of factual information supplied reflect the interests 

 and specialties of the staff of the Washington Office and of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. Questions about the North fell into Dr. 

 Collins' special field. Those on anthropology could be answered by 

 everyone in the Directorate. The Smithsonian's staff handled the 

 questions on natural history and, through the linguist, J. P. Har- 

 rington, some questions on pronunciations of place names and words. 

 A few factual answers came from the information files. 



The Arctic group includes some strategic questions, such as the 

 identification of the St. Lawrence Island coast line from air photo- 

 graphs, and the suitability of a certain island in the Bering Sea for 

 an air field. Others are more ethnological : The linguistic, cultural, 

 and physical relationships of the Kodiak and Aleutian Islanders ; 

 Arctic fishing ; the construction of sod houses in the north ; the di- 

 viding line between various Eskimo dialects ; and what is the weight 

 of a dressed caribou carcass. 



The anthropological questions have the range and world coverage 

 of a preliminary Ph.D. examination. How are blow guns made? 

 Did the Northwest Coast Indians use fish or fish products in trade? 

 What are the Indian methods of screening or other protection against 

 mosquitoes? What tribes of Indians were in Iowa? What dialects 

 are spoken in North Mexico? What are the tribes and languages 

 of Angola, West Africa? Only one is still unanswered: the identi- 

 fication of the supposed ethnic or linguistic groups called Granish 

 and Litvich. 



The Smithsonian staff answered a variety of questions such as 

 the distribution of wild hemp; the scientific name of the Australian 

 bandicoot ; the Baobab tree ; and vampire bats and rabies in Trinidad. 



Dr. Harrington and others aided in furnishing pronunciations 

 of names in the Caroline, Marshall, and other Oceani^^^islands. Other 

 questions about meanings, spellings, origins, and pronunciations were 



