The general plan upon which the work has been prosecuted has been explained in former reports and has not been changed. After certain lines of investigation had been decided upon, they were confided to persons trained in their pursuit, with the intention that the results of their labors, when completed or well advanced, should be presented from time to time in the publications of the Bureau provided for by law. A brief statement of the work upon which each one of the special students was actively engaged during the fiscal year is furnished below, but this statement does not embrace all the studies undertaken or services rendered by them, since particular lines of research have been suspended in this, as in former years, in order to prosecute unto substantial completeness work regarded as of paramount importance. From this cause delays have been occasioned in the completion of several treatises and monographs, already partly in type, which otherwise would have been published.
Invitation is renewed for the assistance of explorers, writers, and students who are not and may not desire to be officially connected with the Bureau. Their contributions, whether in the shape of suggestions or of extended communications, will be gratefully acknowledged, and will always receive proper credit if published either in the series of reports or in monographs or bulletins, as the liberality of Congress may in future allow.
The items now reported upon are presented in three principal divisions. The first relates to the publication made; the second, to the work prosecuted in the field; and the third, to the office work, which largely consists of the preparation for publication of the results of field work, with the corrections and additions obtained from the literature relating to the subjects discussed and by correspondence.
[ PUBLICATION.]
The only publication actually issued during the year was the Fourth Animal Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-’83. It is an imperial octavo volume of lxiii + 532 pages, illustrated by 83 plates, of which 11 are colored, and 564 figures in the text. The official report of the Director, occupying 39 pages (pp. xxv-lxiii), is accompanied by the following papers:
Pictographs of the North American Indians, a preliminary paper, by Garrick Mallery; pp. 3-256, Pls. I-LXXXIII, Figs. 1-209.
Pottery of the Ancient Pueblos, by William H. Holmes; pp. 257-360, Figs. 210-360.
Ancient Pottery of the Mississippi Valley, by William H. Holmes; pp. 361-436, Figs. 361-463.
Origin and Development of Form and Ornament in Ceramic Art, by William H. Holmes; pp. 437-465, Figs. 464-489.
A Study of Pueblo Pottery, as illustrative of Zuñi culture growth, by Frank Hamilton Cushing; pp. 467-521, Figs. 490-564.