The Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Smithsonian Institution, covering the fiscal year of 1884-'85, and bearing the imprint of 1888, will soon be ready for distribution. A brief introduction by the director, Major J. W. Powell, prepares the way for the special monographs, which will be noticed in their order in the volume. Ancient art in theprovince of Chiriqzci, Colombia, by William H. Holmes, pp. 3-188, map and 285 figs. The province of Chiriqui is the narrowest strip of

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... he Isthmus of Panama, and, although belonging to South America, occupies one of those strategic areas which, in addition to its own culture, absorbed a great deal from countries on either side. The metal, stone, and clay productions of the region are faithfully studied in this paper, especially on the side of form and decoration, for which the tastes and education of the author have specially qualified him. The most instructive lesson is the study of conventional decoration in its origin and elaboration. In a series of figures (257-283) Mr. Holmes skillfully analyzes representations of an alligator, tracing its delineation from the recognizable natural form through more and more highly conventionalized forms till without the connecting series the figures would reveal no hint of the underlying design. In this way he has pointed the way for the study of all the ancient ideographic writings. In the author's own words, he has shown that the elements of decoration flow into the ceramic art chiefly through two channels-the one from art, the other from nature. All decorations may therefore have four dual classifications : First, with reference to the mode of realization, as plastic and flat; second, with reference to derivation, as mechanical and imitative; third, with reference to plan of manifestation, as geometric and non-geometric ; and, fourth, with reference to the association or ideas, as significant and non-significant.