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Show OP THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. XLIII The old mission church at Caughnawaga and the Semi nary of the Sulpicians at Oka, on the Ottawa River, are now the principal repositories of those sermons, catechisms, vocabularies, grammars, and dictionaries which represent the labors of the French Roman Catholic missionaries among the Iroquois during two hundred years. Through the courtesy of the Superiors Le Clair and Antoine and the Rev. Father Burtin, several hundred titles were secured by Mrs. Smith for the bibliography of Indian Linguistics in preparation by Mr. Pilling. The most remarkable and tht most important of these rare books in manuscript is the French- Mohawk dictionary compiled during the early part of this century by the Rev. Father Marcoux, which was of great utility to Mrs. Smith in her office work, as mentioned under that heading. WORK OF DR. W. J. HOFFMAN. From August to November, 1883, Dr. W. J. Hoffman, under the direction of Col. Garrick Mailer)-, prosecuted investigations among the several Indian tribes of California and Nevada with special reference to gesture language and pictographs. The total number of tribes visited amounts to between forty and fifty, and they are embraced in the following linguistic divisions, viz: Yuman, Shoshonian, Mariposan, Moquelumnan, Yukian, Mendocinan, Copean, Pujunan, and Washoan. Through the assistance of an intelligent Alaskan, at San Francisco, Cal., an exhaustive collection of Alaskan gestures was obtained, in addition to valuable material and interpretations, with original texts of narratives and records carved on walrus ivory. A number of drawings were also prepared from the original ivory carvings and pictographs in the museum of the Alaskan Commercial Company. Besides these, small collections were obtained from Japanese, and from individual Indians belonging to tribes not included in the abort list of linguistic stocks. WORK OF DR. WASHINGTON MATTHEW8. Dr. Washington Matthews, Assistant Surgeon U. S. A., while on his regular military duty at Fort Wingate, N. Mfex., |
