308 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1884. 



themselves to a general statement of the fact, without going into the 

 details of construction.* 



I have found that the bows of the Western Eskimos are constructed 

 upon three well-defined types, each quite distinctly limited in its geo- 

 graphical distribution. No one of these types can be considered as de- 

 rived from either of the others, but all are plainly developed from a 

 single original type still to be found only slightly modified in the region 

 around Cumberland Gulf, where the mechanical arts seem to have re- 

 mained in many respects more primitive than either in Greenland or 

 Alaska. (Fig. 1, back and side view of a bow of reindeer antler from 

 Cumberland Gulf, JSTo. 34053, collected by L. Kumlien.)t 



The main part of the reinforcement or backing always consists of a 

 continuous piece of stout twine made of sinew, generally a three-strand 

 braid, but sometimes a twisted cord, and often very long (som-etimes 

 forty or fifty yards in length). One end of this is spliced or knotted 

 into an eye, which is slipped round one "nock" of the bow, usually the 

 upper one. The strands then pass up and down the back and round 

 the nocks. A comparatively short bow, having along its back some 

 dozen or twenty such plain strands, and finished off by knotting the 

 end about the " handle," appears to have been the original pattern. The 

 bow from Cumberland Gulf (Fig. 1) is such a one, in which the strands 

 have been given two or three turns of twist from the middle. They are 

 kept from untwisting by a "stop" round the handle, which passes be- 

 tween and around the strands. 



The three Western Eskimo types may be described as follows: 



I. The Southern Type. 



Of this there are two slightly different patterns, found often side by 



side. 



*For example: "They ingeniously remedy the defect [i. e., the want of elasticity 

 in the material] by securing to the back of the bow and to the knobs at each cud a 

 quantity of small lines, each composed of a plat or 'sinnet' of three sinews. The 

 number of lines thus reachiug from end to end is generally about thirty; but besides 

 these several others are fastened with hitches round the bow, in pairs, commencing 

 eight inches from one end and again united at the same distance from the other, mak- 

 ing the whole number of strings in the middle of the bow sometimes amount to sixty. 

 These being put on when the bow is somewhat bent in the contrary way, produce a 

 siniug so strong as to require considerable force as well as knack in stringing it and 

 giving the requisite velocity to the arrow." (Parry's Second "Voyage, p. 511.) 



"These bows [in the Yukon delta] are made of spruce, which has little elasticity 

 when dry and is very liable to break. To remedy this defect the bow is bound with 

 cords twisted from deer sinew [as shown in a figure, which gives the general appear- 

 ance very well]. This gives it great strength and overcomes the brittleness of the 

 V ood." [Dall's Alaska and its Resources, p. 228.) 



"Only some old bows had a finer form. They were larger and made with care; for 

 instance, they were covered with birch bark and strengthed by an artistic plaiting of 

 sinew on the outer side." (Nordenskiold's Voyage of the Vega, ii, p. 108.) 



tWben a scale accompanies a figure each division represents one inch. Figures 

 without a scale are natural size, unless otherwise specified. 



