PREFACE.

A number of years ago the writer undertook the compilation of a bibliography of North American languages, and in the course of his work visited the principal public and private libraries of the United States, Canada, and Northern Mexico; carried on an extensive correspondence with librarians, missionaries, and generally with persons interested in the subject, and examined such printed authorities as were at hand. The results of these researches were embodied in a volume of which a limited number of copies were printed and distributed-an author's catalogue which included all the material at that time in his possession.1 Since its issue he has had an opportunity to visit the national libraries of England and France, as well as a number of private ones in both these countries, and a sufficient amount of new material has been collected to lead to the belief that a fairly complete catalogue of the works relating to each of the more important lin guistic stocks of North America may be prepared. The first of such catalogues is the present; the second, which it is hoped to issue shortly, will be the Siouan.

The people speaking the Eskimo language are more widely scattered, and, with perhaps two or three exceptions, cover a wider range of territory than those of any other of the linguistic stocks of North America. From Labrador, on the east, their habitations dot the coast line to the Aleutian Islands, on the west, and a dialect of the language is spoken on the coast of Northeastern Asia. As far north as the white man has gone remains of their deserted habitations are found, and southward they extend, on the east coast to latitude 50° and on the west coast to latitude 60°. Within this area a number of dialects are spoken, the principal of which will be found entered herein in their alphabetic order.

Some difficulty has been encountered in deciding upon the claim of certain titles to admission into the bibliography. There are certain districts, notably in Alaska and Northeastern Asia, visited or inhabited by Eskimo or people closely allied to them and by other tribes not Eskimo. A vocabulary collected in such a district may be purely Eskimo, or purely not Eskimo, or a mixture containing words in different languages and dialects. The vocabularies collected by Norden

1 Proof-sheets of a Bibliography of the Languages of the North American Indians, Washington, 1885, pp. i-xl, 1-1135, 4°.

skiöld, near Bering Strait, for example, contain Sandwich Island words, imported by sailors on whaling vessels, which words have come into general use among the Indians of that region. Vocabularies collected in Cook's Inlet, Alaska, may be of either the Aleut or Kadiak dialect of the Eskimo or of tribes of radically distinct linguistic stocks. The compiler has frequently found himself in doubt in such cases, but has, after careful consideration, concluded that he can best serve the needs of students of the Eskimo by retaining all titles about which any reasonable doubt exists. Under this ruling it is probable that a few titles will be found in the list which should properly be excluded, but it is believed that the number of such entries is small, and that the usefulness of the catalogue will be greater by retaining these few doubtful titles, some of which should properly be excluded, than by excluding more rigorously, and so omitting titles which should be retained.

The greatest deficiency will probably be found in titles relating to the Asiatic Eskimo. No special effort has been made to collect such material, and that relating to them which does appear was gathered incidentally.

No opportunity has been lost to take titles at first hand, and there will be found herein a larger percentage of books and manuscripts described de visu, it is thought, than is usual in works of this kind.

The earliest printed record of the language known to me is the Greenland vocabulary in the two editions of Olearius's Voyage of 1656. The earliest treatise on the language is found in the various editions of Hans Egede's work on Greenland, first printed in 1729; the next by Anderson in 1746. Egede's dictionary followed closely, appearing in 1750. The earliest text met with is the latter author's Four Gospels, printed at Copenhagen in 1744, though Nyerup credits him with a work printed two years earlier. To the younger Egede we are indebted for the first grammar, which appeared at Copenhagen in 1760.

The first text in the dialect of Labrador of which mention is made herein is the Harmony of the Gospels, printed at Barbime in 1800 (see Nalegapta), the translator of which I do not know. There is no printed grammar of this dialect; but mention will be found under Freitag of a manuscript grammar dated 1839 and under Bourquin of another as about to be printed. The only dictionary is that of Erdmann of 1864. As to the extreme west, Veniaminoff and Netzvietoff translated and issued a number of texts between 1840 and 1818; also a dictionary of the Aleut, and a grammatic treatise of the Kadiak and Aleut, in 1846. The only other dictionary of any of the western dialects is that of Buynitzky, published in 1871.

The only texts of the Eskimo of the middle stretch of country are those of the Hudson Bay people by the Rev. E. J. Peck.

For a succinct statement of the order and date of publication the reader is referred to the chronologic index at the end of the bibliography.

The best collection of Eskimo texts I have met with is that of Major Powell, of Washington; the second, perhaps, that in the library of the British Museum. The best collection of Arctic literature is that in the British Museum; the second, that in the Library of Congress.

No detailed statement of the plan pursued in recording this matter is thought to be necessary, as but few departures from the ordinary rules of library cataloguing have been made. The dictionary plan has been followed to its extreme limit as the best adapted to the purpose in view. All works are entered under their author when known-translators being considered as authors-and under first word of title, not an article or a preposition, when the name of the author is not known. A cross-reference is given from the first words of every Eskimo title when such title is entered under an author's name, whether or not the work is anonymous. All titular matter, including cross-references, is in a larger, all index and explanatory matter in a smaller, type.

During the progress of type setting a number of titles have come to hand in time for insertion in their proper places, but, in some cases, too late to permit the proper entry to be made in the subject or dialect indexes; and the translation of the Eskimo titles, which was done after the matter was in galley proof, has shown that a few items have been wrongly entered in the subject indexes. I think these unavoidable minor errors and omissions should not be held to weigh against the manifest advantages of a single alphabetic arrangement.

The prices quoted are from such sources as were at command, and are arranged chronologically.

My thanks are due to Mr. John Murdoch, librarian of the Smithsonian Institution, who has kindly translated the Eskimo titles for me.

APRIL 20, 1887.

J. C. P.