THE0WING-STICK8. 283 



end of the bird-spear shaft is the cauiue tooth of some animal driven 

 into the wood at the distal end of the long-shaft groove. 



FURY AND UEOLA STEAITS TYPE. 



In Parry's Second Voyage (p. 508) is described a throwing-stick of 

 Igloolik, 18 inches long, grooved for the shaft of the bird-spear, and hav- 

 ing a spike for the hole of the shaft, and a groove lor the thnmb and 

 for the fingers. The index-finger hole is not mentioned, but more than 

 probably it existed, since it is nowhere else wanting between Ungava 

 and Capo l\omaiizolf in Alaska. This form, if properly described by 

 Parry, is between the Uugava and the Cumberland Gulf specimen, 

 having no kinship with the throwing-stick of Greenland. The I^ational 

 Museum should possess an example of throwing-stick from the Fury and 

 Hecla Straits. 



ANDERSON RIVER TYPE. 



The Anderson Eiver throwing-stick (and we should include the Mac- 

 kenzie Kiver district) is a very primitive affair in the IsTational Museum, 

 being only a tapering flat stick of hard wood (Fig. 6). Marks 2, 3, 

 4, 5, and C are wanting. The index-finger cavity is large and eccentric 

 and furnishes a firm hold. The shaft-groove is a rambling shallow slit, 

 not over half an inch wide. There is no hook or spur of foreign material 

 inserted for the spear end ; but simply an excavation of the hard wood 

 which furnishes an edge to catch a notch in the end of the dart. Only 

 one specimen has been collected from this area for the National Mu- 

 seum; therefore it is unsafe to make it typical, but the form is so unique 

 that it is well to notice that the throwing-stick in Eskimoland has its 

 simplest form in the center and not in the extremities of its whole area* 

 It is as yet unsafe to speculate concerning the origin of this implement. 

 A rude form is as likely to be a degenerate son as to be the relic of a 

 barbaric ancestry. Among the theories of origin respecting the Eskimo, 

 that which claims for them a more southern habitat long ago is of 

 great force. If, following retreating ice, they first struck the frozen 

 ocean at the mouth of Mackenzie's Kiver and then invented the kyak 

 and the throwing-stick, thence we may follow both of these in two direc- 

 tions as they depart from a single source. 



POINT BARROW TYPE. 



Through the kindness of Mr. John Murdoch, I have examined a number 

 from this locality, all alike, collected in the expedition of Lieutenant 

 Ray, U. S. A. (Fig. C). They are all of soft wood, and in general out- 

 line they resemble a tall amphora, bisected, or with a slice cut out of 

 the middle longitudinally. There is a distinct " razor-strop" handle, 

 while in those previously described the handle is scarcely distinct from 

 the body. Marks 3, 4, 5, and 6 are wanting. The index-finger hole is 

 very large and eccentric, forming the handle of the " amphora." The 



