the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, commencing September 18 and closing December 31, 1895. With this in view it became necessary for many of the curators to devote a large share of the year to the preparation of suitable exhibits. A description of these will accompany the report of the Assistant Secretary for 1896.

Large and important accessions have been received, as usual, from the United States Geological Survey, the Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Ethnology, and the U. S. Fish Commission.

It is gratifying to note that Dr. William L. Abbott and Mr. William Astor Chanler and Lieut. von Höhnel have continued to contribute valuable collections of ethnological and natural history objects, obtained in connection with their respective explorations in Africa and India. The Museum still enjoys the cooperation of several officials of the Geological Survey, the Department of Agriculture, and the Fish Commission as honorary curators of collections.

About 127,000 specimens have been added to the collections during the year. In view of the fact that no special effort has been made to acquire material, this large addition would be very gratifying if the conditions were such that it were possible to administer it properly.

In the Appendix accompanying this report some of the most important operations of the Museum during the year are briefly referred to. The report of the Assistant Secretary in charge of the National Museum, constituting the second volume of the Smithsonian Report, discusses fully the work of the Museum during the year.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY.

The researches upon the ethnology of the American Indians have been carried forward, as heretofore, under the direction of Maj. J. W. Powell. As in previous years, a certain amount of field exploration has been carried on. Especially interesting have been the results of the expedition in the arid region in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, known as Papagueria, lying south of the Gila River, west of the Sierra Madre. The region first visited was that occupied by the Papago Indians; nearly all of their villages and rancherias were examined and a number of prehistoric ruins were discovered, among them those of villages with extensive irrigation works. Subsequently was visited the domain of the Seri Indians, occupying Tiburon Island in the Gulf of California, and a considerable region of the adjacent mainland in western Sonora.

The Papago Indians are peaceful and represent the higher grade of aboriginal intelligence among the inhabitants of Mexico and Central America; the Seris are savage and primitive in their habits, being probably the least advanced of the North American tribes still remaining. The archæological results of the collections obtained are of special interest, since the region is very peculiar and but partially known.

The surveys in the Canyon de Chelly, referred to in previous reports, were completed during the year, and an account of the work will soon

be published, which it is hoped will be an important contribution to our knowledge of the origin and early history of the cliff dwellings and pueblos of the Southwest.

Experts have also been engaged in the Indian Territory during the year investigating the heraldic systems and the calendars of the Kiowa Indians. Toward the close of the year a special expedition was sent to excavate the ruins of the pueblos in the little-known country southwest of Flagstaff and at Tusayan, in northeastern Arizona. This section was under the charge of Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, and the results, so far as reported, have been exceedingly important.

The death of Col. Garrick Mallery interrupted for the time the work of the Bureau in the investigation of Indian sign languages. The study of the Mexican codices and inscriptions has been continued, and an important paper on the Maya year has been published.

As during previous years, especial attention has been paid to the study of myths, beliefs, and ceremonials, especially those of the Zuni Indians, who are particularly interesting by reason of the important part played by mythology in their organizations.

The illness of Mr. James C. Pilling, the distinguished specialist, who has for many years had charge of the bibliographical work of the Bureau, has for a time put an end to the publication of bibliographical material. It is fortunate that so much of the important work of Mr. Pilling has already been completed and printed.

The study of the aboriginal languages, which has from the beginning been a most important branch of the work of the Institution, has been carried forward uninterruptedly, and has resulted in a preliminary classification of the Indian tribes. During the year a large amount of new material has been permanently recorded and satisfactory progress has been made in the arrangement of the vocabularies and grammars already collected. The Bureau has in its fireproof vaults several hundred valuable manuscripts pertaining to the Indian languages which are available for the use of students, pending the work of editing and publication. The Bureau has also suffered a severe loss in this department of the work in the death of Rev. J. Owen Dorsey.

In addition to the special branches of investigation already referred to, much has been done in the assembling and classifying of informa tion concerning the Indian tribes.

Satisfactory progress was made in the publication of the results of the Bureau's researches during the year. Eight complete volumes, comprising 10 papers, covering nearly 2,000 pages, with 674 illustrations, were received from press and in part distributed, and other volumes were made ready for the Public Printer.

Further details concerning the operations of the Bureau may be found in the statement of Director Powell, which accompanies this report as Appendix II.

22

the Cotton States

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THE SMITHSONIAN INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE SERVICE.

In making arrangements for the distribution of its early publications the Smithsonian Institution was led to establish relations with foreign scientific societies and libraries, which have proved of very great value in giving effect to one of the principal aims of its founder, "the diffusion of knowledge."

In England and Germany, with which the most active exchange of scientific literature has always been maintained, it has been found necessary to establish special agents, who devote a large part of their time to the Institution's interests.

There thus exists a channel of communication between this and foreign countries by means of which societies or individuals engaged in the promotion of scientific work can exchange publications practically without expense.

The extent of the service is best illustrated, though yet imperfectly, by the accompanying map of the world, which conveys an idea of how the more than 24,000 correspondents of the exchange service are distributed. Upon such a small scale the precise statistical distribution can not, of course, be shown.

The Smithsonian exchange service, which at first was mainly for the distribution of scientific publications, underwent an important change when it became the agency for the United States Government in the exchange of its parliamentary documents for similar documents of foreign Governments, and though Congress now makes annually an appropriation for carrying out the provisions of a treaty formally entered into by our Government to maintain a bureau for "the free transmission of the works exchanged," these appropriations have never been sufficient to meet the entire expense involved, and the service is only kept up by continuing to rely upon the generosity of many of the ocean steamship lines, which in the early days of its existence granted to the Institution the privilege of free transportation in recognition of its disinterested and important scientific work.

The important change to which I refer lies in the fact that so large a proportion of the books carried now consists of Government publications, such, for instance, as the Congressional Record and reports; indeed, in the transmission of such documents alone the Institution has in past years expended of its own private fund over $38,000, for which it has never been reimbursed.

The appropriation for the past year having been restored to its former amount of $17,000, and slightly increased amounts having been made available to certain Government bureaus for the distribution of their

The exchange of Government documents is about 70 per cent of the entire exchange work.

2 See Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, 1890, p. 18.