814 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



The lower figure on plate 42, fig. 7, is an arrow straiglitener, made of 

 ivory. Tlie lower longitudinal line has similar, tliougli more frequently 

 recurring, lateral lines than on fig. 0, while the side bears a continuous 

 row of nucleated circles, the central cup like perforations being unusu- 

 ally large in comparison to the rings surrounding them, clearly indicat 

 iug that a one-eighth-inch auger bit was used in their production, as 

 a smaller instrument made specially for incising rings (as the V-shaixd 

 cuts in the end of a piece of metal) would naturally have the two points 

 equally pointed. (Compare plate 77.) 



The reverse of the side bearing the median line bears a similar inci 

 sion from end to end, but the lateral, oblique, radiating lines are each 

 between (me eighth and one-half inch in length, somewhat between the 

 two sizes noted on plate 8. This is evidently without significance other i 

 than that of ornamentation. 



In a private communication of recent date Mr. L. M. Turner informs 

 me, with reference to the circle, that "this ornament is much more com- 

 mon south of Bering Strait, where it is a conventionalized representa- 

 tion of a flower.'' Mr. Murdoch' writes: 



Somo of the older implements in our collection, ornamented with this figure, may 

 have been obtained 1»y trade from tbo southern natives, but the Point Barrow people 

 certainly know how to make it, as there are a number of newly made articles in the 

 collection thus ornamented. Unfortunately, we saw none of these objects in the proc- 

 ess of manufacture, as they were made by the natives during odd moments of leisure, 

 and at the time I did not realize the importance of finding out the process. No tool 

 by which these figures could be made so accurately was ever offered for sale. 



Neither Mr. Turner nor Mr. Dall, both of whom, as is well known, spent long 

 periods among the natives of the Yukon region, ever observed the process of mak- 

 ing this- ornament. The latter, however, suggests that it is perhaps done with an 

 improvised centerbit, made by sticking two iron points close together in the end 

 of the handle. » * * Lines rarely represent any natural objects, but gen- 

 erally form rather elegant conventional patterns, most commonly double or single 

 borders, often joined by oblique cross lines or fringed with short, pointed parallel 

 lines. * * * ^Yhile weapons are decorated only with conventional patterns, other 

 implements of bone or ivory, especially those pertaining to the chase, like the seal 

 drags, etc., are frequently carved into the shape of animals, as well as being orna- 

 mented with conventional patterns. 



Mr. L. M. Turner says, furthermore : 



The circles which have smaller ones within represent the so-called "kantag" (a 

 word of Siberian origin introduced by the Russians), or wooden vessels, manufac- 

 tured by Indians and bartered with the Innuit for oil and sealskin bootsoles, etc. 

 These "kantags" are sometimes traded in nests, i.e., various sizes, one within the 

 other. (See figs. 4, 7, and 10, on plate 77.) 



Regarding the "circle figures," Mr. Turner^ remarks further : 



I know from information given by one of the best workers of bone and ivory, also 

 pipe-bowls, in the Unaligmut (or Unalit) village, near St. Michaels, that the circle 

 means a flower when it has dentations on the outer periphery, and some that were 

 unfinished on an old much used handle for a kantag (wooden vessel) were also said 

 by him to mean flowers. 



iNinth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology for 1887-88, 1892, pp. 390, 391. 



2 Letter dated February 25, 1895. 



