732 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 230. 



case of the Naval Observatory at "Washing- 

 ton, by the interference of trolley wires. 



Just what points will be chosen for the 

 maintenance of continuous observatories 

 will depend somewhat on the number of 

 fixed magnetic observatories already main- 

 tained by universities and other institutions. 

 With continuous records in Washington, 

 Toronto, one point in the Northwest, Mex- 

 ico and Havana, the magnetic fluctuations 

 over the continent of North America ought 

 to be fairly well followed. In addition to 

 these a magnetic observatory will be estab- 

 lished by the Coast Survey on one of the 

 Hawaiian Islands, where its situation will 

 not only supplement the data furnished by 

 the observatories in the mainland, but by 

 reason of its position in an isolated island 

 may well be expected to add new facts to 

 our knowledge of one of the most interest- 

 ing, but one of the least perfectly under- 

 stood, branches of physical science. 



Heney S. Pritchett, 



Superintendent. 



TEE JESUP NORTH PACIFIC EXPEDITION. 



ETHNOLOGICAL WORK OX THE ISLAND OP 



SAGHALIN. * 



The following report has been received 

 from Dr. Berthold Laufer, who is in charge 

 of the ethnological work of the Jesup 

 North Pacific Expedition on the Amoor 

 River and on the Island of Saghalin. The 

 expedition is being carried on under the 

 auspices of the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History, the expenses being borne per- 

 sonally by President Morris V. Jesup. Dr. 

 Laufer left New York in May, 1898, and 

 went to Saghalin by way of Japan and 

 Vladivostok. He spent the time from the 

 summer of 1898 until March, 1899, among 

 the various tribes inhabiting that island. 

 He writes under date of March 4, 1899, as 

 follows : 



* Published by authority of the Trustees of the 

 American Museum of Natural History. 



In the collections which I made on the 

 Island of Saghalin there are a number of 

 very interesting specimens. On my journey 

 made in the course of last winter I suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining from the Olcha Tungus 

 a collection of wooden idols and amulets 

 made of fish-skins, which are quite new to 

 science. I obtained from the Ainu of 

 southern Saghalin a very interesting col- 

 lection of ethnographical objects. I have 

 had very good success in using the phono- 

 graph, and have obtained songs of the' 

 Gilyak and Tungus. The only difficulty is 

 that the instrument cannot be used in the 

 winter, owing to the efiect of severe cold. 



I intend to leave Saghalin the beginning 

 of next week and continue my work on the 

 Amoor River. It is my intention to devote 

 a good deal of my time to the study of lin- 

 guistics, since this part of my investiga- 

 tions has been least satisfactory. There 

 are no interpreters on Saghalin capable of 

 translating texts. There is no one who 

 knows more than the most common phrases 

 of Russian. Among the Ainu, Russian is 

 entirely unknown, and for the purpose of 

 interpreting I had to use Japanese, with 

 which, however, they are not very familiar 

 either. My knowledge of the Japanese 

 language facilitated my work among them 

 very much, since they like the Japanese 

 very well. I succeeded in obtaining a great 

 deal of ethnological material and informa- 

 tion, traditions, and a large amount of 

 grammatical and lexicographical material, 

 although a short time only was available 

 for this purpose. I collected most of my 

 material among the Ainu during the night 

 time, because it is only at this time that 

 everything is astir. I have no detailed 

 translations of this material, but expect 

 to be able to make translations with the 

 help of my lexicographical matei-ial and 

 comparisons with the Ainu dialect spoken 

 in Japan. There is a great difference be- 

 tween these two dialects. The Ainu of 



