sonian Institution, however, is the archæology of this region, and it is to this that Mr. Williams has been requested to chiefly direct his attention. It is his intention to visit El Kutel, one of the most striking monolithic remains in Northern Africa, and other ruins of equal interest. Photographs and measurements will be obtained, for which purpose a photographic outfit has been furnished to Mr. Williams, who is thoroughly competent to conduct investigations of this kind. The Smithsonian Institution has also provided an outfit of instruments for taking observations of temperatures and altitudes, and he has been requested to obtain musical instruments of all kinds, as far as the limited sum of money placed at his disposal from the Museum fund will enable him to purchase them.

News has already been received of Mr. Williams's arrival in Africa. He has secured a complete series of musical instruments, from the rudest whistle to stringed instruments of skillful manufacture. In each instance the native names and names of the parts have been ascertained, the proper pitch of each string taken, and a native melody, as played on each kind of instrument, has been noted in our musical notation. He has also succeeded in obtaining a varied collection of objects illustrating the domestic life of the people.

Mr. W. W. Rockhill, of the German legation of Pekin, has for several years made himself familiar with the customs of the natives of Thibet, and having recently undertaken a journey through that country, will make a special study of the ethnology of the region. He has been supplied by the institution with a barometer and other instruments desired by him for his journey. His previous investigations have resulted in an exceedingly valuable collection of objects illustrating the religious practices, occupations, and amusements of various peoples in different parts of China, Thibet, Turkestan.

Dr. James Grant Bey, who some years ago established a sanitarium in Cairo, Egypt, and attended the International Medical Congress held in Washington in 1887, became much interested in the work of the National Museum, and has since his return to Egypt devoted his leisure time to special studies of the arts of the ancient Egyptians. Several valuable collections have already been received from him.

During the summer, the Bureau of Ethnology decided to send Mr. Jeremiah Curtin to Hoopa Reservation in California for the purpose of studying the languages and mythology of the tribes of Indians inhabiting the reservation. The Smithsonian Institution was fortunately enabled to secure the assistance of Mr. Curtin in investigating their arts and industries also, and a small sum of money was placed in his hands for the purchase of objects of Indian manufacture.

Dr. John M. Crawford, U. S. consul-general at St. Petersburg, has kindly offered to allow the National Museum to participate in the results of his ethnological researches in Russia and Finland. Dr. Crawford is well known in the United States as a philologist and a student of Scan

dinavian antiquities, and as the author of the English translation of the Finish epic "The Kalevala." His appointment as consul-general at St. Petersburg was made with a special view to enable him to carry on his studies of the traditions and antiquities of the Finish race and related peoples. He has offered to make collections for the National Museum, and in order to facilitate his work, the Smithsonian Institution has provided him with letters of introduction to several of its correspondents in Russia and Finland. These will no doubt be of great service to him in enabling him to carry out the object which he desires to further.

Rev. Frederick H. Post, an Episcopal clergyman of Salem, Oregon, has recently undertaken missionary work in Alaska, and has taken up his residence at Anvik, on the Yukon River. He has entered into correspondence with the Smithsonian Institution, and has offered to collect information relating to the tribes of the Upper Yukon. He has also proposed to make meteorological observations at Anvik. This offer has been referred to the Signal Office. It is probable that an outfit of alcohol, guns, and ammunition will be sent to Mr. Post next year to enable him to collect the mammals and birds of that region.

Lieut. J. F. Moser, commanding the U. S. Coast Survey steamer Bache has continued his explorations for the Museum, and has transmitted a collection of fishes, mollusks, insects, and marine invertebrates from the vicinity of Cape Sable, Florida.

Prof. O. P. Jenkins, of De Pauw University, Indiana, has made arrangements to visit the Hawaiian Islands for the purpose of collecting fishes, and has expressed his intention of presenting a duplicate series of specimens to the National Museum. The Smithsonian Institution has supplied him with seines and has furnished him with a letter of introduction to the curator of the national museum in Honolulu.

Ensign W. L. Howard, U. S. Navy, has kindly offered to collect zoological and ethnological material in Alaska, and has been supplied with collecting apparatus and supplies for use in trading with the Indians.

A large outfit of tanks, bottles, and alcohol was supplied to Mr. W. A. Stearns, of Cambridgeport, Mass., for use in collecting specimens of natural history in northern Labrador. No collections have yet been received from him.

PUBLICATIONS.

Under an arrangement made by the late Secretary, Prof. E. D. Cope was engaged at the time of my last report in completing and preparing for publication an investigation upon the Reptilia and Batrachia of North America, which has been in progress, under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, for more than twenty years. The monograph on the Batrachia, mentioned in my last report as having been received, is now in type, though not yet published, but that on the Reptilia is still

delayed. I have positive assurance from Professor Cope that it will be completed within the present year, but the expense entailed in the publication has continued to prove far greater than the late Secretary had anticipated, and I am sorry that the expectation of its completion during the past year has not been fulfilled.

I have referred in my last report to the demand for greater economy in publication, and to the probability that some change would be requisite in the form of the annual reports. It will be remembered that the Smithsonian Institution has three classes of publications:

The Contributions to Knowledge.

The Miscellaneous Collections.

The Annual Reports.

A brief review of the past and present condition of each of these publications may here be made, with special reference to the latter. For details concerning these different classes, and for the matter actually presented under each, reference may be made to the appendix. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge.-The first work of original research published by the Institution was the well-known treatise by Messrs. Squier and Davis, in 1848, on Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. This was the commencement of the quarto series entitled "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," which now numbers twenty-five volumes. This series is designed to record the results of original research, offering positive additions to human knowledge, either undertaken by agents of the Institution or encouraged by its assistance. In general character these contributions correspond somewhat with the more elaborate transactions of learned societies. From causes briefly adverted to in my last report, original memoirs deemed worthy of a place in this series have been much rarer in later years than in the earlier portion of the Institution's history.

Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections.-In 1862, a second series of publications was commenced by the Institution, in octavo form, with the Meteorological and Physical Tables of Professor Guyot, under the title of "Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections." This series embraces papers or treatises of a more practical character than those of the Contributions, including résumés of existing knowledge in special departments, systematic lists or classifications of species in the animal, botanical, or mineral kingdoms of nature, tabular collections of natural constants, scientific bibliographies, and other summaries, of value to the students of physical or biological science. These collections now number thirty-three volumes.

Among the subjects heretofore included in this series have been the proceedings or transactions of several scientific societies of Washington (the Philosophical, the Anthropological, and the Biological), which were organized under the auspices of officers of the Smithsonian Institution. To promote their usefulness the stereotyping of their several published

journals was undertaken by the Institution and a large extension of their distribution was thus effected by including their re-issue in the Miscellaneous Collections, of which series they constitute three volumes. These societies having now severally attained a highly successful and self-supporting condition of activé membership, it has been thought that this form of patronage might well be withdrawn without detriment to the welfare of the societies and with advantage to the Institution. These publications are accordingly no longer stereotyped by the Institution, or included in its issues.

The Bulletins and Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum, published by an appropriation of Congress, have also been heretofore reprinted by the Institution and this supplementary edition has occupied five volumes of the Miscellaneous Collections. It has been decided in like manner to hereafter omit these publications from the series.

Smithsonian Annual Reports.-A provision of the act of Congress organizing the Smithsonian Institution (Revised Statutes, Title 73, Sec. 5593) requires that "the Board shall submit to Congress at each session thereof a report of the operations, expenditures, and condition of the Institution." These annual reports have been accompanied with a "general appendix," giving summaries of lectures, interesting extracts from the correspondence, and accounts of the results of explorations undertaken by the Institution or aided and promoted by it, as well as of new discoveries in science. In the annual report for 1880 and the following years my lamented predecessor undertook to give a more systematic character to the history of discoveries, by engaging a number of able collaborators in various fields of knowledge, to furnish a general summary or record of scientific progress for the year. Appropriate as the scheme appears, it has not been found to work as satisfactorily as is desirable, and as had been hoped for. It has seldom been possible to collect as complete summaries as were originally contemplated; and the delay of publication deprives the record of much of the freshness and interest it would otherwise possess, while in all these the rapid increase of scientific literature demanded such a corresponding increase in the corps of reporters and such a correlatively increasing expenditure as the fixed Smithsonian fund was growing quite unable to afford. It will be remembered that of this appendix there are distributed through members of Congress as many as 9,000 copies, forming the larger part of the whole edition, and that it is thus incumbent on us to observe that it reaches a large class of readers unable to follow the work of specialists in original memoirs.

After serious consideration it has been finally determined to restrict, if not forego, the scheme of a general annual survey of scientific literature and progress, and to recur in large part to the system of Henry of selecting memoirs of a special interest and permanent value, which have already appeared elsewhere and which are sufficiently untechnical

to be readily apprehended by readers fairly representative of the intelligent and educated class among the constituents of the members of Congress, by whom they are chiefly distributed.

If, as I have already suggested, Congress sees fit to make a small appropriation for the editing as well as the publication of this appendix, so as to enable it to include, for instance, information relative to the progress of scientific discovery and its useful application in the United States, such a record would be in keeping with the objects of this Institution, and would maintain for this report the popularity and the educational character just referred to, while promoting industrial interests in the country.

In this connection I beg to repeat the remark that it would be desirable to have the supplementary matter of the report placed under a special clause for the avoidance of all question as to the "necessity and entire relation to the public business" of such information, a question which has arisen by the construction given by the Public Printer to the act of Congress of August 4, 1886.

Publications of the National Museum.-These publications (already referred to as being issued by Government appropriations) comprise two series: First, the "Proceedings of the National Museum," consisting of short essays giving early accounts of recent accessions, or newly ascertained facts in natural history, and promptly issued to secure the earliest diffusion of the information, of which series ten annual volumes have now been issued; and secondly, the "Bulletins of the National Museum," consisting of more elaborate memoirs relative to the collections, such as biological monographs, taxonomic lists, etc., of which series thirty-six numbers have been issued. These bulletins vary greatly in size from pamphlets of fifty pages to works of many hundred pages.

Publications of the Bureau of Ethnology.-The principal publication of this Bureau is the "Annual Report." This series consists of large royal octavo volumes, detailing researches relative to the aborigines of North America, handsomely printed and illustrated with numerous cuts and lithographic plates. The fifth Annual Report has been issued during the year, and the series may be referred to, as at the same time creditable to the Government and as fitted to engage public attention by mat. ter of an interest beyond what is ordinarily found in any Government document.

Distribution of Smithsonian Publications.—It is manifestly impossible for the Institution, with its fixed and limited income, to keep pace in its issues and their distribution with the increase of popular interest in scientific productions. The ordinary edition of 1,500 copies of each of the Smithsonian publications which has been produced from the beginning, cannot be enlarged without seriously impairing the efficiency