GUISTIC MAP.

In 1836 Gallatin conferred a great boon upon linguistic students by
classifying all the existing material relating to this subject. Even in
the light of the knowledge of the present day his work is found to rest
upon a sound basis. The material of Gallatin's time, however, was too
scanty to permit of more than an outline of the subject. Later writers
have contributed to the work, and the names of Latham, Turner, Prichard,
Buschmann, Hale, Gatschet, and others are connected with important
classificatory results.

The writer's interest in linguistic work and the inception of a plan for
a linguistic classification of Indian languages date back about 20
years, to a time when he was engaged in explorations in the West. Being
brought into contact with many tribes, it was possible to collect a
large amount of original material. Subsequently, when the Bureau of
Ethnology was organized, this store was largely increased through the
labors of others. Since then a very large body of literature published
in Indian languages has been accumulated, and a great number of
vocabularies have been gathered by the Bureau assistants and by
collaborators in various parts of the country. The results of a study of
all this material, and of much historical data, which necessarily enters
largely into work of this character, appear in the accompanying map.

The contributions to the subject during the last fifty years have been
so important, and the additions to the material accessible to the
student of Gallatin's time have been so large, that much of the reproach
which deservedly attached to American scholars because of the neglect of
American linguistics has been removed. The field is a vast one, however,
and the workers are comparatively few. Moreover, opportunities for
collecting linguistic material are growing fewer day by day, as tribes
are consolidated upon reservations, as they become civilized, and as the
older Indians, who alone are skilled in their language, die, leaving, it
may be, only a few imperfect vocabularies as a basis for future study.
History has bequeathed to us the names of many tribes, which became
extinct in early colonial times, of whose language not a hint is left
and whose linguistic relations must ever remain unknown.

It is vain to grieve over neglected opportunities unless their
contemplation stimulates us to utilize those at hand. There are yet many
gaps to be filled, even in so elementary a part of