N 



34 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



office, at Saint Michaels, Alaska, there has been received a continu- 

 ation of his extremely important collections of objects manufactured 

 and used by the Esquimaux of Alaska. This collection is especially 

 rich in carvings on bone and walrus ivory, representing scenes and in- 

 cidents in the life of that people. 



The Institution is indebted to Mr. F. Hirst, of Bridger Station, for many 

 interesting articles from the Rocky Mouutaiu region, principally stone 

 implements of various kinds. 



Professor Haydeu has presented a full series of models of the ancient 

 ruins iu New Mexico and Colorado, together with restorations showing 

 -what was probably their original character. These have attracted 

 much attention, and the promised continuation of the series affords much 

 satisfaction. 



Mr. Frank H. Cushing, assisted by Mr. Henry J. Biddle, of Philadel- 

 phia, visited a cave near Hagerstown, Md., and obtained many relics of 

 the aboriginal people who formerly inhabited that vicinity. Numerous 

 implements of stone and bone, articles of pottery, and fragments of the 

 remains of aboriginal feasts, &c, were collected and are now in process 

 of careful investigation. 



The most important yields from the shell- heaps of the United States 

 were obtained from the shell-mounds of Mobile, by Colonel Gaines and 

 Mr. K. M. Cunningham, of that city. These consist of numerous articles 

 of pottery, some of them quite peculiar in form, and of a material and 

 ornamentation constituting almost a distinct class in aboriginal ceramics. 

 With these were also various articles of bone, stone, &c, the whole making 

 one of the most important contributions of the kind yet secured by the 

 National Museum. 



From numerous localities in the interior have been received single 

 specimens or collections, partly from mounds, partly from graves, and 

 partly from the superficial soil. These will be referred to in more detail 

 in the list of donations. Among the more noteworthy are those presented 

 by Colonel McAdoo and Mr. McKinley, from Georgia ; Mr. Perriue, 

 from Illinois ; Mr. Brodnax and Dr. James, from Arkansas ; Mr. Illigg 

 and Mr. Berlin, from Pennsylvania, and others. 



A great many possessors of rare and curious objects, indisposed to part 

 with them permanently, have freely lent them to the Institution, for the" 

 purpose of having copies made, and several persons have been occupied 

 during a great part of the year in making plaster casts aud in painting 

 them from the originals before their return. 



A collection of implements received from Mr. Berlin, of Beading, is 

 of peculiar interest as representing, iu all probability, the same palreo. 

 lithic epoch as that which Dr. Abbott has so ably discussed in his paper 

 on the Antiquities of New Jersey, published in the Report of the Smith 

 soman Institution for 1875. 



A most valuable addition to the ethnological collection consisted of a 

 -cries of casts of the heads and faces of sixty-four Indians, held as pris- 



