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Show XVIII BUREAU OF AMEBICAJ* ETHNOLOGY texts which are especially valuable not only as indices of linguistic structure but as records of tribal history, customs, social organization, and beliefs. Mr J. N. B. Hewitt spent the autumn in the field in northern New York and neighboring parts of Ontario, collecting linguistic and sociologic data required for the full comparative study of the Iroquoian tribes. He was also able to obtain new and valuable additions to the series of creation myths for which these Indians are notable, and through which their names have become extensively incorporated in the literature of the world. On November 4, 1897, Mr J. B. Hatcher, of Princeton University, who was about to sail for Argentina, was specially commissioned to make collections among the Indian tribes of South America; and toward the end of the fiscal year he sent his first shipment of material, representing the natives of Patagonia, whose characteristics have attracted attention for centuries. On January 11, 1898, Mr Gerard Fowke was employed temporarily to make archseologic surveys and excavations in an interesting locality in Kentucky. These excavations were particularly successful, yielding a considerable quantity of valuable material, which has been forwarded to Washington. Shortly before the opening of the fiscal year Dr Robert Stein, attached to Lieutenant R. E. Peary's Arctic expedition for the purpose of exploring a little- known stretch of the coast of western Greenland, was commissioned to make archaeologic researches and collections. He was landed on August 10,1897, and remained until September 1, when he was taken up by Lieutenant Peary on his return trip. During Dr Stein's stay on a part of the coast not now inhabited, he discovered abundant traces of ancient habitation by the Eskimo, and collected a quantity of somatologic and other material. The objective material collected during these explorations has been placed in the National Museum; portions of the new data have been added to the archives, but the greater part are incorporated in memoirs now in preparation or completed for publication, as is indicated in other paragraphs. The scientific results of the work are summarized in the following pages. |