Mr. E. W. NELSON, during 1886, and continuously to the end of the fiscal year, has devoted much time to preparing a report upon the Eskimo of northern Alaska, for which his note books and large collections obtained in that region furnish ample material. During 1886 the vocabularies, taken from twelve Eskimo dialects for use in Arctic Alaska, were arranged in the form of an English-Eskimo and Eskimo-English dictionary. These dictionaries, with notes upon the alphabet and grammar, will form one part of his report. The other part will consist of chapters upon various phases of Eskimo life and customs in Alaska, and will be illustrated by photographs taken by him on the spot and by specimens collected during his extended journeys in that region. His notes upon Eskimo legends, festivals, and other customs will form an important contribution. Mr. LUCIEN M. TURNER is also engaged in the preparation of a similar report upon the Eskimo, in the form of a descriptive catalogue of the large amount of material collected by him during a residence of several years at St. Michaels and in the Aleutian Islands. When these two reports shall be completed the amount of accurate information concerning the remarkable people to whom they relate will be materially increased. Mr. HENRY W. HENSHAW has continued in charge of the work upon the synonymy of the Indian tribes of the United States, which was alluded to in some detail in the annual report of last year. This work has been temporarily suspended, and Mr. Henshaw has assisted the Director in the preparation of a linguistic map of the region north of Mexico and in the classification of the Indian tribes, a work which properly precedes and forms the basis of the volume on synonymy. Col. GARRICK MALLERY was steadily occupied during the year in the work of the synonymy of the Indian tribes, his special field being the Iroquoian and Algonquian linguistic stocks, and his particular responsibility being the careful study of all the literature on the subject in the French language. He also, when time allowed, continued researches in and correspondence concerning sign language and pictographs. Mr. JAMES MOONEY has been occupied during the entire year, in conjunction with Col. Mallery, in that portion of the work of the Indian synonymy relating to the Algonquian and Iroquoian families. Mr. JOHN N. B. HEWITT has continued the linguistic work left unfinished by Mrs. Erminnie A. Smith. During the year he has been engaged in recording, translating, and tracing the derivation of Tuscarora words for a Tuscarora-English dictionary. He has thus far recorded about 8,000 words. Mr. ALBERT S. GATSCHET has devoted almost the entire year to the synonymy of Indian tribes, and has practically completed the section assigned to him, viz, the tribes of the southeastern United States.