800 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



The Britons in adopting the design for tlieir native coins, and being 

 perhaps — I may suggest the word certainly — unacquainted with the 

 form, or use, of the chariot, and the signification of other characters 

 and figures found upon the Greek prototype, reproduced in their suc- 

 cessive issues and recoinings variations in these foreign characters, or 

 replaced them by symbols with which they were acquainted and of 

 which they comprehended the signification. 



In many of the British coins the horses are reduced to a single 

 animal, though with legs sufficient for two, clearly representing the 

 pair by synecdoche, exactly as our Korth American Indian does in his 

 records of personal or tribal engagements with the enemy. 



Illustrations relating to this peculiarity on the coins named, together 

 with the substitution of native and familiar characters and symbols 

 for those of foreign and unknown types, will be presented farther on.^ 



DECORATION AND ORNAMENTATION. 



The importation into Alaska and the adoption by the natives of art 

 designs which are foreign to their own does not appear at all impossible, 

 and the subject is one which would seem to ofter an interesting field for 

 investigation with a reasonable hope of interesting developments. 



With respect to the probability of the transmission of such art work, 

 Mr. Hadden,^ whom I have before quoted, remarks: 



As decorated objects must be conveyed by man, the means for their dispersal and 

 the barriers which militate against it are the same as those which operate on human 

 migrations; but there is one difference. Where men go we may assume that they 

 carry their artistic efforts and proclivities with them, but decorated objects may be 

 carried farther than the actual distance covered by the manufacturer, or even than 

 the recognized middleman or trader. 



This brings us to a very important subject, and that is the question of trade routes. 

 Trade routes are culture routes; and in order to appreciate the history of culture, it 

 is necessary to know the directions in which it flowed. Until we have a more com- 

 plete knowledge of the ancient trade routes of Europe, we can not recover the history 

 of the prehistoric Europe. 



This subject is now beginning to receive great attention in the Old 

 World, and some highly interesting and valuable facts have been 

 brought to light. 



In North America the study of prehistoric trade routes, or culture 

 routes, has thus far received but a limited amount of careful attention; 

 but some instances of curious results of intertribal traffic have been 

 observed. Frequently designs of a specific character, such as may be 

 termed peculiar to a special tribe, are carried to remote localities and 

 there adopted by other tribes of an entirely different linguistic family, 

 whereas the same design or pattern of the former may not produce the 

 slightest apparent effect upon the recognized art designs or ornamenta- 



' Special attention is called to the work of Doctor John Evans, D. C. L. The Coins 

 of the Ancient Britons, London : 1864-1890. Plates A-N., and i-xxni, together with 

 figures in text. Map. 



^Evolution in Art, p. 328. 



