10 REPORT OP THE SECRETARY. 



Dr. Jennings began before the termination of Dr. Meek's appointment. 

 Applications for the coming year are now under consideration. 



EXPLORATIONS. 



Ethnological and natural-history explorations have been continued 

 under the direction or with the assistance of the Institution in various 

 parts of the world by the Bureau of Ethnology and the ISTational 

 Museum. This work is more fully described elsewhere, but I may men- 

 tion here that a large number of objects of interest from various parts 

 of the world have been added to the Museum collections, and much 

 valuable information has been acquired regarding the history and the 

 language of the American Indians. Among the explorations of the year 

 were those by Dr. William L. Abbott in Siam, Prof. O. F. Cook in 

 Africa, Dr. E. A. Mearns in Minnesota and elsewhere, Mr. Frank H. 

 Gushing in Maine, Mr. J. W. Fewkes in Arizona, Mr. E. T. Perkins in 

 Idaho, Mr. W J McGee in Iowa, Mr. J. B. Hatcher in Patagonia and 

 Tierra del Fuego, and Dr. Willis E. Everette in Oregon, British Columbia 

 and Mexico. 



PUBLICATIONS. 



The publications of the Institution and its bureaus during the year 

 comprised two works in quarto form, four in royal octavo, and fourteen 

 in octavo, aggregating 9,630 pages, covering to a greater or less degree 

 nearly all branches of human knowledge. 



The Smithsonian Institution proper issues three series of works: 

 The Contributions to Knowledge, the Miscellaneous Collections, and 

 the Annual Report. By the bureaus of the Institution there are 

 issued the Annual Eeport and the Bulletin of the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology and the Proceedings and Bulletin of the National Museum, 

 and the Secretary transmits to Congress the Annual Report of the 

 American Historical Association. The Smithsonian Contributions and 

 Miscellaneous Collections are printed at the expense of the Institution 

 and the other publications from Congressional apiDropriations. 



Co7itributions to Knoivledge. — Two memoirs of this series were issued 

 during the year, both having been submitted in competition for the 

 Hodgkins fund prizes. 



The memoir by Lord Rayleigh and Professor Ramsay describes the 

 discovery of argon, for which achievement the authors were awarded 

 the first Hodgkins prize of $10,000. It gives an account of the reasons 

 which led the investigators to suspect the existence of a new element 

 in the atmosphere and a detailed description of the apparatus and 

 methods by which the presence of this hitherto unknown gas was 

 definitely established. The importance of the discovery was recog- 

 nized independently by the Institute of France, which awarded a prize 

 of 50,000 francs, and by the National Academy of Sciences, which 

 granted to the discoverers the Barnard medal. 



