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 corre-
spondence 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 distrib-
uted--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 ter-
ritory 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 differ-
ent languages and dialects. The vocabularies collected by Norden-

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