80 DANIKL WILSON ON THE ARTISTIC 



enter iu his journal the special occurrences of the fox-hunt, or the more adventurous 

 feats of deer-stalking-, or commission an artist to perpetuate them on canyas. Incidents 

 of exceptional skill or daring are no doubt recalled, and listened to wilh eager interest by 

 the home circle in the Arctic snow-hut ; and confirmed iu their most thrilling details by 

 appeals to such graven records. 



The more durable material employed alike by the ancient cave-dwellers of Europe 

 and by the modern Inuuit and Eskimo, has secured their preservation iu a form best cal- 

 culated to command attention. But similar graphic representations of incidents and ideas 

 are common to various tribes of North American Indians. Throughout the wide region 

 of the old Algonkin tribes rock-carvings, such as that of the famous Dighton Rock, 

 abound. The same arc no less frequent in the south-west from New Mexico to California; 

 while similar pictographs are executed by the Ojibwas in less durable fashion on their 

 grave-posts, or even on strips of birch bark. In like fashion, the Crées and Blackfeet of 

 our Canadian Northwest adoru their buflalo-skin tents with incidents of war and the 

 chase ; and blazon their bulTalo robes with their personal feats of daring, and the discom- 

 fiture of their foes. In this way, the aboriginal draftsman is seen in his pictorial devices 

 to be animated by a higher aim thau mere i^astime or decoration. 



Of the ornamented handles of implements recovered from the abodes of the ancient 

 cave-dwellers of Europe, the most notable examples are far iu advance of any Eskimo 

 carvings. One of those, from the cave at Laugerie Basse, has been repeatedly engraved. It 

 is fashioned from a piece of reindeer's horn. The carver has so modified his design, and 

 availed himself of the natural contour of his material, as to adapt it admirably to its pur- 

 pose as the handle of a poignard. It was apparently intended to include both handle and 

 blade ; but probably broke in the process of manufacture, and was flung aside irnfinished. 

 The design is a spirited adaptation to the special requirements. The horns are thrown 

 back on the neck, the fore legs doirbled up, and the hind legs stretched out, as if in the 

 act of leaping. Another finely finished example of a dagger-handle, from Montastrue, 

 Peccadeau de ITslo, figured by Professor de Quatrefages in his " Hommes fossiles," also 

 represents the deer with its horns thrown back ; but from its fractured condition the 

 position of the limbs can only be surmised to have corresponded to the example from 

 Laugerie Basse. With those may be classed such carvings as the pike so characteristically 

 represented on a tooth of the cave-bear, recovered from a refuse heap in the cave of 

 Durntly in the "Western Pyrenees, and other similar si^orts of primitive artistic skill. 



Such carvings had no other aim, we may xJresume, than the decoration of a favourite 

 weapon, or the beguiling of a leisure hour. But they show the fruits of skill, and the 

 observation of a practised eye, by the ingenious workmen whose drawings and etchings 

 merit our careful study. Considerable taste and still more ingenuity are manifested by 

 many of the aborigines of this continent, in their decorative carvings, and the ornamenta- 

 tion both of their weapons and dress. The characteristics of Eskimo art have been noted. 

 The Thlinkets of Alaska, lying on their western border, manifest a like skill, making ladles 

 and spoons from the horns of the deer, the mountain sheep, and goat ; and carving them 

 with elaborate ingenuity. They also work in walrus ivory, carving their bodkins, combs, 

 and personal ornaments with A^aried ornamentation ; decorate their knife-handles of bone, 

 their paddles, and other implements ; and carve grotesc[ue masks, with much inventive 

 ingenuity in the variety of the design, though scarcely in a style of high art. But it is 



