the study as the
classification of the tribes by language. As to the detailed study of
the different linguistic families, the mastery and analysis of the
languages composing them, and their comparison with one another and with
the languages of other families, only a beginning has been made.

After the above statement it is hardly necessary to add that the
accompanying map does not purport to represent final results. On the
contrary, it is to be regarded as tentative, setting forth in visible
form the results of investigation up to the present time, as a guide and
aid to future effort.

Each of the colors or patterns upon the map represents a distinct
linguistic family, the total number of families contained in the whole
area being fifty-eight. It is believed that the families of languages
represented upon the map can not have sprung from a common source; they
are as distinct from one another in their vocabularies and apparently in
their origin as from the Aryan or the Scythian families. Unquestionably,
future and more critical study will result in the fusion of some of
these families. As the means for analysis and comparison accumulate,
resemblances now hidden will be brought to light, and relationships
hitherto unsuspected will be shown to exist. Such a result may be
anticipated with the more certainty inasmuch as the present
classification has been made upon a conservative plan. Where
relationships between families are suspected, but can not be
demonstrated by convincing evidence, it has been deemed wiser not to
unite them, but to keep them apart until more material shall have
accumulated and proof of a more convincing character shall have been
brought forward. While some of the families indicated on the map may in
future be united to other families, and the number thus be reduced,
there seems to be no ground for the belief that the total of the
linguistic families of this country will be materially diminished, at
least under the present methods of linguistic analysis, for there is
little reason to doubt that, as the result of investigation in the
field, there will be discovered tribes speaking languages not
classifiable under any of the present families; thus the decrease in the
total by reason of consolidation may be compensated by a corresponding
increase through discovery. It may even be possible that some of the
similarities used in combining languages into families may, on further
study, prove to be adventiti