PEOGRESS AND POSITION OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCIENCES. 635 



sess the faculty lie had of drawing forth the confidence of the villagers 

 and getting them to tell him their superstitions and their old customs. 

 He succeeded in recording from their lips not fewer than 733 items of 

 folklore. They not merely form exceedingly pleasant reading, such as 

 is perhaps not often met with in a British Association report, but they 

 also will be found to throw considerable light on the views which I 

 have ventured to lay before you. It is much to be wished that others 

 who have the like faculty, if even in a lesser degree, could be induced 

 to take up similar work in other districts, now that Dr. Gregor has so 

 well shown the way in which it ought to be done. 



The work done by the committee for the ethnographical survey of 

 Canada; the completion of the ethnographical survey of the North- 

 western tribes, which has been ably conducted for many years ; and 

 the progress made in the ethnographical survey of India will also be 

 brought under your notice, the latter in a paper by Mr. Orooke, who 

 has worked with Mr. Risley upon it. 



Another movement, which was originated by this section at the 

 Liverpool meeting, and was referred to in the report of the council of 

 the association last year, has made some progress since that report was 

 presented. Upon the recommendation of this section, the general com- 

 mittee passed the following resolution and referred it to the council for 

 consideration and action: 



" That it is of urgent importance to press upon the Government the 

 necessity of establishing a bureau of ethnology for Greater Britain, 

 which, by collecting information with regard to the native races within 

 and on the borders of the Empire, will prove of immense value to science 

 and to the Government itself." 



The council appointed a committee, consisting of the president and 

 general officers, with Sir John Evans, Sir John Lubbock, Professor 

 Tylor, and your esteemed vice-president, Mr. Read, the mover of the 

 resolution. Their report is printed at length in last year's report of 

 council, and shows clearly how useful and how easily practicable the 

 establishment of such a bureau would be. The council resolved that 

 the trustees of the British Museum be requested to consider whether 

 they could allow the proposed bureau to be established in connection 

 with the museum. I understand that those trustees have returned a 

 favorable answer; and I can not doubt that the joint representations 

 which they and this association will make to Her Majesty's Government 

 will result in the adoption of a scheme calculated to realize all the 

 advantages which we in this section have so long looked for from it. 

 In the secretary of state for the colonies and the chancellor of the 

 exchequer we have statesmen who can not fail to appreciate the ben- 

 efits the community must derive from acquiring accurate and scientific 

 knowledge of the multifarious races which compose the Empire. 



Those of us who visited the United States last year had the oppor- 

 tunity of observing the excellent work which is done by the Bureau 

 of Ethnology at Washington, and those who stayed at home are prob- 



