232 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



the Columbia Eiver to Mount St, Elias these Coast Indians have marked 

 ethnic affiliatiouSj but the linguistic variations are great, and in the 

 southern region are now the subject of systematic governmental investi- 

 gation. 



Comparative philology and mythology, a study of the primitive cus- 

 toms and habits of the geographical and linguistic groups, and com- 

 parisons of the ethnological material and collections from this region, 

 can alone throw light upon the history and ethnic affinities of the various 

 Indian stocks. 



ETHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



In British Columbia, the philological and mythological part of the 

 work has been commenced by Dr. W. F. Tolmie and Prof. George M. 

 Dawson, in connection with the geological and natural history survey 

 of Canada, and is now the subject of special investigation by a commit- 

 tee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, under a 

 grant for the purpose. Dr. Franz Boas is conducting the work for the 

 committee in the field, and the result is being from time to time pub- 

 lished. 



For Washington Territory and Alaska, this investigation is in the 

 hands of the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution, 



SCOPE OF THIS PAPER. 



The facts here published w^ere gathered by the writer in the summer 

 seasons (May to October inclusive) of 1885, 1S8C, and 1887, while on 

 duty in the survey of Alaska now being carried on by the officers of the 

 Navy, under the direction of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. The 

 material presented has little bearing on the philology and mythology of 

 the region embraced in the survey. Such work must come later, be 

 undertaken more systematically, and carried on in the winter months, 

 when the Indians are located in their permanent villages. The writer 

 is indebted to Judge J. G. Swan, of Port Townsend, Washington Ter- 

 ritory, for valuable notes on the Haida of Queen Charlotte Islands. His 

 collections from the I^Torth West Coast, under the direction of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, form the bulk of the ethnological material in the 

 National Museum from the region about Dixon entrance, and have been 

 freely used in the accompanying illustrations. 



CLASSIFICATION. 



A provisional classification of the Indians of the North West Coast, 

 from Puget Sound to Cape St. Elias, based on philological considera- 

 tions, would, according to Dr. Franz Boas, divide them into three 

 groups, as follows : 



Group I. Salish, Kwakiutl, and Wakashan (Nutkan). 



Grouj) II. Tsimshian, 



Group III. Tlingit and Haida. 



