768 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



used consisted of simple lines and punctures or perforations, such as 

 are found at present among the Greenland and Labrador Eskimo, 

 though among the latter small carvings are also beginning to be more 

 abundant. 



In his referen(;e to the Kaniags, Mr. Ivan Petrofif ^ says they use 

 whale spears about G feet in length, armed with slate points. '• Upon 

 the point of his spear each hunter carves his mark to enable him to 

 claim his quarry." 



Mr. L. M. Turner informs me that Eskimo property marks are unknown 

 to him, although each hunter, or maker of weapons, will recognize his 

 own workmanship, as well as that of others, by different peculiarities 

 of individual skill. Among the sea-otter hunters of the Aleuts, they 

 do have marks by which the detachable point of the otter spear may 

 be known. " This point is often copper, obtained from copper bolts from 

 a Eussiau vessel long ago stranded on their shore; and as the spear is 

 made with exquisite skill, the point is also delicate and of particular 

 form, so that a difficulty would arise as to whose spear point strikes 

 nearest the nose of the creature. In its struggles the point is torn 

 loose from the strong, yet slender, sinew line holding it to the spear. 

 Another thrower may succeed in striking it and capture the otter, but 

 he whose point is nearest the nose may claim the skin. A fair degree 

 of liberality is usually manifested in such instances."^ 



The residence in Point Barrow of Mr. Murdoch — extending over a 

 period of perhaps three years — afforded him ample opportunity to study 

 the art of the Eskimo of that northernmost extremity of Alaska. In 

 his report before mentioned he remarks: 



The artistic sense appears to be much more highly developed among the western 

 Eskimo than among those of the east. Among the hitter, decoration appears to be 

 applied almost solely to the clothing, while tools and utensils aro usually left plain, 

 and if ornamented are only adorned with carving or incised lines. West of the 

 Mackenzie Eiver, and especially south of Bering i-^trait, Eskimo decorative art 

 reaches its highest development, as .shown by the collections in the National Museum. 

 Not only is everything finished with the utmost care, but all wooden objects are 

 gaily painted with various pigments, and all articles of bone and ivory are covered 

 with ornamental carvings and incised lines forming conventional patterns. 



There are in the collections also many objects that appear to have been made 

 simply for the pleasure of exercising the ingenuity in representing natural or fanci- 

 ful objects, and are thus purely works of art. * * * As would naturally be 

 expected, art at Point Barrow occupies a somewhat intermediate position between 

 the highly developed art of the southwest and the simiilar art of the east. * * * 

 It will l)e noticed that whenever the bone or ivory parts of weapons are decorated, 

 the ornamentation is iisnally in the form of incised lines colored with red ocher or 

 soot. These lines rarely represent any natural objects, but generally form rather 

 elegant conventional patterns, most commonly doable or single borders, often joined 

 by oblique cross lines or fringed with short pointed parallel lines. ' * * 



The only decorative work in metal is to be seen in the pipes and their accompany- 

 ing i)icks and fire steel. * * * 



'Report on the population, industries, and resources of Alaska, Tenth Census, 

 1880, VIII, p. 142. 

 2 Personal letter of date of May, 1896, 



