24 Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology. 



islands from Captain Denham's expedition, which is now ill 

 that ocean 



Mr Brierly, who accompanied the late Captain Owen 

 Stanley in the " Rattlesnake" to New Guinea, the Louisade 

 Archipelago, and the North-Western Pacific Islands, is en- 

 gaged in preparing for publication the ethnological materials 

 which he gathered in that cruise. His abilities as an 

 observer, and the opportunities he enjoyed, have been turned 

 to good account ; and I am able to say that his forthcoming 

 work will extend our knowledge of the Ethnology of that 

 area. 



America. — The study of the Ethnology of North America 

 is being pursued with that energy and comprehensiveness of 

 purpose which characterize that people. The Government of 

 the United States appointed a commission of well-qualified 

 men to study, record, and publish historical information con- 

 cerning the Indians in its territory. A magnificent work in 

 quarto is the result, of which the second volume reached 

 Europe in the autumn. This work contains a description and 

 history, with the manners, customs, and language, as ex- 

 hibited in copious vocabularies and grammars, of the several 

 tribes of Indians. The two volumes already published are 

 well illustrated by copperplates and woodcuts. The com- 

 prehensive design of giving a systematic account of the 

 people who are fast fading away before the advances of a 

 higher civilization, is one that we might copy with great advan- 

 tage to our national character both in British America and in 

 our other colonies. 



The Smithsonian Institution, in its systematic cultivation 

 of natural knowledge, embraces that of Ethnology, and in its 

 volumes are found most valuable contributions to the Archae- 

 ology of the Indian tribes. The researches connected with 

 the earth-works of the Mississippi Valley, by the Hon. E. G. 

 Squier, who is a Fellow of our Society, in vol. i., and those 

 connected with the earth- works in Ohio, in vol . iii., by 

 Charles Whittlesey, Esq., are important contributions to the 

 ancient Ethnology of those districts. 



The American Ethnological Society is not idle, but, on the 



