718 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



Mr. John Murdoch ' describes similar objects wliich Le purchased at 

 Plover Bay, easteru Siberia, iu 1881 (fig. 43). They were supposed to 

 be merely works of art. Referring to the account given by Dr. Boas 

 of their use as a game, he says: 



Fig. 4:j. 



GAME(?) OP FOX AND CiEESE. 

 After Murdouli. 



It is therefore quite likely they were used for a similar purpose at Plover Bay. 

 If this be so, it is a remarkable point of similarity betweeu these widely separated 

 Eskimo, for I can learn. nothing of a similar custom at any intermediate jioint. 



Mr. Murdoch refers to the game as mentioned by Captain Hall,^ Avho, 

 speaking of the Central Eskimo, says: 



They have a variety of games of their own. In one of these they use a number 

 of bits of ivory made iu the form of ducks. 



Fig. 44. 



CARVED IVOEY WATER BIRDS AND SEAL. 



St. Lawrence Island, Siberia. 



Cat. No. 6.3457, U.S.N. M. 



In the United States National Museum {Cat. No. 63457) there is a set 

 of carved water birds and a seal (fig. 44), collected from the Eskimo 

 at St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, by Mr. E. W. Nelson, iu 1882. He 

 informs me, through l*rof. Otis T. Mason, that he never saw the flat- 



' Ethnological Results of the Port Barrow Expedition, Ninth Anuual Report of the 

 Bureau of Ethnology, Wasliiugton, 1892, p. 3(U. 

 - Charles Francis Hall, Arctic Researches, New York, 1860, p. 570. 



