III.-A STUDY OF THE ESKIMO BOWS IN THE U. S. NATIONAL 



MUSEUM. 



By John Murdoch. 



While endeavoring to work out the method of construction of the 

 bows collected by our i)arty* among the Eskimos of Point Barrow, 

 Arctic Alaska, I was led to make a comparative study of all the Es- 

 kimo bows in the Xational Museum with the view of determining the 

 types of construction to be found among them, and their geographical 

 distribution. 



It is the purpose of this paper to present the general conclusions 

 arrived at from this study, which I propose to treat in detail in a mo- 

 nograph of the ethnological collection of the expedition, which I am 

 engaged in preparing, I am indebted to Professor Otis T. Mason, of the 

 National Museum, for much cordial assistance and co-operation in the 

 prosecution of this study and in the preparation of the illustrations. 



1 have confined myself to the discussion of the forms of bow in use 

 among the Western Eskimos, namely, those inhabiting the shores of 

 the Arctic 'Jcean from the Mackenzie River westward to Bering Strait, 

 of Bering Sea and theGulf of Alaska, with the outlying Asiatic branches 

 on the mainland of Siberia and Saint Lawrence Island. These regions 

 are very fully represented in the Museum by the collections of Ross 

 and MacFarlane from the Mackenzie River region, Dall, Turner, Xelson, 

 and others, from the Alaska coast, Xelson, from Saint Lawrence Island, 

 and the North Pacific Exploring Expedition, from the mainland of Si- 

 beria, while the material from the eastern tribes is very scanty and 

 unsatisfactory. 



Starting from the island of Kadiak in the south, there is abundant 

 inaterial from the whole coast as far as the northern shore of Norton 

 Sound, from the Diomede Islands, Point Hope, Wainwright's Inlet, 

 Point Barrow, and the Mackenzie region, as well as from Saint Lawrence 

 Island and the Siberian shore. Unfortunately, the region about Kotze- 

 bue Sound, including the great peninsula between this and Norton 

 Sound, is not represented in the cciHection. 



Tlie field of investigation is practicallj' untrodden. Although it lias 

 long been known that the Eskimos used cords of elastic sinew to coun- 

 teract the brittleness and lack of elasticity in the spruce and fir — the 

 only wood at their disposal for making bows — authors have confined 



*U. S. InteruatioiiJil Polar Expedition to Point Barrow, 1881 -'83. 



•J07 



