Mat 23, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



491 



the first needs of a research institute. Other- 

 wise a worker may spend weeks, months, or 

 even years, in arriving at the solution of a 

 problem which has already been solved by some 

 other worker, or which with proper library fa- 

 cilities could be solved in a few days. This 

 library will be at the service of all research 

 workers in New Zealand. It is also proposed 

 to maintain the most friendly relationship 

 with the Departments of Agriculture, Educa- 

 tion and Mines, so that the work of the insti- 

 tute and of the government departments 

 should be complementary to each other, having 

 for their ultimate objects the welfare and ad- 

 vancement of the Dominion and of the empire. 

 The late Mr. Cawthron was very much inter- 

 ested in the establishment of a solar observa- 

 tory in Nelson, whose climate is particularly 

 suited for this purpose. 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS OF 

 ALASKA 



The Pennsylvania Gazette reports that 

 Chief Louis Shotridge, of the Chilkat of the 

 TlUmit Indians of Southwestern Alaska, long 

 a member of the staff of the University Mu- 

 seum, has returned from four years' explor- 

 ations among his own people. In that time he 

 secured many hundreds of unique ethnological 

 specimens for the museum, having spent most 

 of his time collecting and writing down in 

 the native language the manners, customs, 

 traditions and religious rites of the various 

 tribes. It is believed that Mr. Shotridge is 

 the first trained anthropologist who has ever 

 done work of this sort among the American 

 Indians using the native tongue. Chief Shot- 

 ridge took all his notes in the Chikat lan- 

 guage and will now spend the coming months 

 in reducing them to English and making ex- 

 planatory notes, which will form imique vol- 

 umes in the history of our aborigines. 



Mr. Shotridge took along a phonograph to 

 record folk-songs and especially the ceremo- 

 nial chants which accompany every great 

 demonstration of the tribe. Unfortunately, 

 the guttural sounds did not record well, so he 

 was obliged to commit all these songs to 

 memory. They will be taken down at once in 

 ordinary musical notation by an expert. 



There are more than thirty of these ceremo- 

 nial hymns. In addition he learned more than 

 100 folk-songs, which will be recorded. All 

 of these will also be recorded on the phono- 

 graph. 



Mr. Shotridge says that his people are so 

 rapidly acquiring civilized customs and man- 

 ners that before long there will be left none 

 to hand down the ancient culture. He con- 

 siders himself fortunate to have been able to 

 find enough old people in his tribe to make 

 the records complete. 



The specimens he brought back are in many 

 instances unique and some were given because 

 the medicine men and chiefs foresee the ex- 

 tinction of native culture and want the relies 

 I>reserved. The collections preceded Mr. Shot- 

 ridge, and most of them are now on exhibition 

 at the University Museum. Mr. Shotridge 

 brought back a bride from his own tribe, who 

 will assist her husband in his work. 



A DEPARTMENT OF FOREST RECREATION OF 



THE NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE 



OF FORESTRY 



A NEW department, that of Forest Recrea- 

 tion, has just been established at the New York 

 State College of Forestry, Syracuse Univer- 

 sity. This department will assist in the devel- 

 opment of the educational work of the college, 

 both along investigational and instructional 

 lines, in the proper uses of forest areas for pub- 

 lic recreation purposes. The establishment of 

 this department is in line with the endeavor of 

 the college to make its work of real service to 

 the people of the state and to increase the 

 right use of forests and forest lands. This is 

 the first department of forest recreation to be 

 established in a school or college in this coun- 

 try. 



With the great Adirondack and Catskill For- 

 est Reserves, Palisades Inter-state Park, Letch- 

 worth Park and some thirty other public forest 

 reservations, the whole totaling nearly two mil- 

 lions acres. New Tork state has unique forest 

 resources capable of securing to its millions of 

 people great public good in the way of recrea- 

 tional uses. Just as playgrounds are being es- 

 tablished in villages and cities throughout the 

 country where play may be organized and prop- 



