532 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 



where the design is perpetuated in embroidery alone, engraving be- 

 coming less common as the distance from the sea and the source of 

 suitable material such as walrus ivorj is diminished. There is a 

 trace of the spiral and double curve to be found also among the 

 wood carving tribes of the Pacific northwest coast, where it vanishes 

 before the more powerful zoomorphic totemic design patterns and the 

 plastic art of the Pacific coast area characterized by sculptures in 

 wood. The realism of Eskimo silhouette engraving is noteworthy in 

 that its technic remains simple. The ivory tusk having first been 

 softened by immersing in urine, a base line is engraved lengthwise of 

 the tusk. Outlines of animal forms, of landscape scenes in silhouette, 

 of huts, canoes, and humans in profile are lightly etched. The out- 

 lines are filled in with cross hachure, blackened with dirt and grease, 

 the whole picture representing a scene from the daily life of Arctic 

 America. The figures give a sense of life and mobility. 



Wood carvings in the round. — Carving and modeling in the round 

 are peculiarly the achievements of the north Pacific coast and Es- 

 kimo tribes. Carving first appears in northern California and be- 

 comes more prolific in Oregon, "VVasliington, and British Columbia, 

 the Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands and the Tlingit of south- 

 east Alaska being the most adept carvers in wood and horn. 

 Great totem poles and house columns are peculiar only to a small 

 area of British Columbia and southeastern Alaska, while the ex- 

 quisitely carved small horn spoons, images, and countless types of 

 carved wooden objects appear from California to Point Barrow. 

 Wood becomes scarce and is replaced with ivory north of British 

 Columbia, and ivory carving begins with the Tlingit in southeastern 

 Alaska and reaches its highest artistic development at the hands of 

 the Eskimo on the bleak, barren coast of northwest Alaska. Along 

 the eastern stretches of the Arctic in the homes of the central and 

 eastern Eskimo their typical arts become marginal and artistic carv- 

 ing is less characteristic. 



Decorative art in relief. — Relief carving upon the outside of 

 wooden bowls results from an attempt to carry around the walls of 

 the vessel definite designs of animals or men in such a way that 

 the body of the bowl becomes also the body of the creature whose 

 features appear carved on the outer wall surface. When a flat sur- 

 face is decorated, the whole figure is spread out upon it. Sometimes 

 designs of totemic animals are merely laid out in color and become 

 thus more conventionalized. Indian tribes of British Columbia and 

 of southeast Alaska practice their decorative art in a more intensive 

 way as it is, in part, their expression of beliefs concerning family 

 ancestors and culture traditions. North of the Tlingit and south 



