1G8 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



liave occurred. So inventions come when we are ripe for them 

 and look for and strive after them — and then they are not accidents, 

 but logical endings of systematic beginnings — ^just as the solution of 

 a mathematical problem follows its working. 



One may walk — as the savage does — over diamond or coal fields, 

 rich bottom lands, or gold-bearing rocks, seeing nothing of their 

 nature, contents or potentialities because intent on other things — 

 of the hunt or war — and because not developed to any possible com- 

 prehension of anything more. But the civilized and mentally and 

 scientifically developed man, going over the same ground might 

 make valuable discoveries, for good to himself and his fellows, while 

 losing sight of the beasts or the signs of presence of others that the 

 eye of the savage takes in. The latter is therefore not to be charged 

 with negligence, nor the civilized man with being the victim of an 

 accident. So inventions come when we are ready for and seek theai. 

 — as apples fall into the basket we hold to catch them when ripe 

 and ready to drop. 



Mr. Murdoch read a paper on the " Sinew-dacked Bow of the 

 Eskimo." 



All the branches of the widely-distributed Eskimo race now live 

 in regions which are either treeless or else deprived of the ash and 

 other elastic woods fit for making bows. The fact that the bow was 

 in general use among the Eskimo previous to the introduction of 

 firearms is one of the arguments that they have not always lived in 

 the regions which they now inhabit, but have moved on from places 

 where wood suitable for the purpose was to be obtained. As they 

 gradually became settled in their new homes, probably before the 

 different branches were so widely separated from the original stock 

 as they are now, and as the simple bows which they had brought 

 with them from their old country became worn out and had to be 

 replaced, it was necessary to find some means of giving the needful 

 elasticity to the brittle spruce and fir, frequently rendered still 

 more brittle by a long drift on river and sea, followed by exposure 

 to sun and rain on the sea-beach. In some places even driftwood 

 is so scarce that bows were made of no better material than dr}' 

 antler. The elastic sinews of several animals, especially of the rein- 

 deer, furnished the means desired of making an efficient weapon out 

 of these poor materials. This is not employed in the way used b}- 

 the Indians of the plains, who glue a broad strip of sinew along the 



