742 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



sliglitly curved and has a chamfer for the tbumb. There is no attempt 

 at cementing or seizing or ratcheting on the tang. The bond is in 

 effect a very ancient connective done in iron. Length, 7^ inches. 



Example Cat. No. 150715 {a), in the U. S. National Museum, is 

 similar to the foregoing excepting that the blade is straight and there 

 is a slight carving at the outer end of the handle. The handle in both 

 of these specimens seems to be left hand, inasmuch as the bevel and 

 curve of the blade and the chamfer tit the left hand and do not fit the 

 right. The great nuinber of whittling knives of this species in eastern 

 Asia raises some interesting questions of the method of intrusion of the 

 Iron Age into the aboriginal life of the Western World. 



In the area between Bering Strait and the Aleutian Islands, under 

 the influence of Russian traders and the whaling industry, great num- 

 bers of carver's knives in endless variety are found. The largest col- 

 lection from this region has been made by Mr. E. W. Nelson, and the 

 forms of whittling knives, carving knives, and etching knives will be 

 found fully illustrated in Mr. Nelson's work. 



A large and interesting series of curved knives were collected by 

 von Schrenck about the mouth of the Amoor River and northward, and 

 are now iu the Imperial Museum at Moscow. These knives represent 

 all of the different classes spoken of in this paper, to wit: Knives with 

 straight blades, for ordinary domestic purposes; those with long curve, 

 for ordinary whittling; those with abrupt curve at the end, as in the 

 farrier's knife, for excavating canoes and boxes; and those with sharp 

 points, for engraving on hard substances. The handles are either plain 

 or ornamented and have a short or a long bevel for the thumb. Those 

 which have a decided sidewise curve are always fitted to the right hand 

 and cut toward the person (fig. 17). 



CONCLUSION. 



I find that in the emjiloyment of the curved knife the Eskimo, the 

 (3anadian tribes, together with their kindred on the northern boundary 

 of the United States, and, more than all, the North Pacific tribes on 

 both sides of the ocean have exhausted the possibilities of an imple- 

 ment that has been in the hands of some only a century or two. 



The arts of all these tribes were bettered and not degraded by the 

 curved knife. In every case they were immensely improved. The form 

 of knife with straight, short blade made it possible for the northern 

 and western tribes to become better carvers and engravers. Before 

 the possession of iron there is meager evidence that either of these 

 areas possessed other than the most trivial carvings in hard material. 

 Their best results were in soft wood and slate, by means of beaver 

 tooth or shark's tooth knives. 



The curved knife serves to confirm the opinion that as soon as any 

 process or device came within the scope of a people's intelligence they 

 have mastered it and brought it to a climax, from which time on new 

 ideas and new inventions replaced the old. 



