The Greenland Bow. 25 
does not mention, the whalebone bow. Moreover, it would hardly 
have been particularly common at any time, among other reasons 
because of its doubtless inferior force when compared with the backed 
bow!, and it must have become even still more rare at the time 
of the earliest colonisation, owing to the partial extermination of the 
great whalebone whales in the 17th century. This is probably also 
the reason why neither Boas, NELSON, MURDOCH, TURNER, nor STEFÄNS- 
son mention bows of this kind from among the Eskimo outside Green- 
land. That they can hardly have been unknown is evident, inter alia, 
from the fact that Bocoras mentions their existence among the Chuk- 
chee? (ef. also the specimen mentioned on p.11). Local types do 
not appear to occur, and we need not therefore further discuss the 
distribution. 
Relation of Types one to another. 
The Compound Bow. 
The relation between the whalebone bow and the backed bow, as 
well as the true compound, Asiatic bow, is not quite clear. The com- 
bination of two homogeneous layers recalls the Siberian type, which 
consists of two strips of wood glued together. There are however, 
some not insignificant points of difference from this; both pieces of 
wood, for instance, are of the same length; the bow is wrapped round 
with bark, skin, etc. which is never the case with the whalebone bow. 
On the other hand, it is perhaps not altogether impossible that this 
may have had its origin in the primary eastern type, for in some 
cases, the upper layer is in reality fastened to the lower like a kind 
of backing (as in the specimens 7861 and A 2c 4). The question must, 
however, remain undetermined for the present. 
The Backed Bow. 
The backed bow, on the other hand, does not appear to offer 
any difficulty as regards its developement. At the lowest stage we 
have evidently to place the primary eastern type, which so early a 
writer as Murpocu considered to be the original form, and from this 
to the secondary there is but a short step. The primary arctic type 
evidently has its origin in the primary eastern, to which a new layer 
of backing was added, from which again the secondary arctic type 
(Fig. 4, a) has developed. The South Alaskan type, — somewhat 
indefinitely styled by Мовросн the ‘‘southern” — is hardly, as Mur- 
1 cf. PorsıLv, р. 159. 
2 Bocoras, p. 155. 
