NELSON] CARVING AND DRAWING 197 



are not regarded by them as having any particular value, and I was 

 often amused at the delight with which they sold specimens of their 

 work for one or two needles, a brass button, or some similar trifle. 



The women of the district between the Yukon delta and Kuskokwim 

 river are not very proficient in needlework or in ornamenting their gar 

 ments, the artistic skill appearing to be confined to the men; but on 

 the islands and the adjacent American shore of Bering strait, while the 

 men make very handsome ivory work, the women are equally skilful in 

 beautiful ornamental needlework on articles of clothing. This is nota 

 bly the case with the finely decorated sealskin boots for which the 

 natives of Diomede and King islands are noted. 



The men at Point Hope, on the Arctic coast, are also skilful in ivory 

 work. About the shores of Kotzebue sound and Bering strait various 

 articles and implements, such as celts, knives, knife sharpeners, and 

 labrets, are made from nephrite. 



On the Asiatic shore the Eskimo appear to have lost much of their 

 skill in carving and other ornamental work; consequently their cloth 

 ing and implements, both on the mainland coast and on St Lawrence 

 island, are rudely made. 



In ascending Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, as the coast districts are 

 left behind skill in carving becomes less and less marked among the 

 Eskimo, until those living as neighbors to the Tin no appear to have 

 but little ability in that art. Paimut, the last Eskimo village on the 

 Yukon, was notable for the fact that the tools and other implements in 

 use were as rude as those of the adjacent Thine. 



In addition to their skill in carving, the Eskimo of the coast display 

 great ability in etching upon tools and implements, notably on ivory 

 drill-bows, scenes from their daily life, records of hunts, or other events. 

 They also produce a great variety of ornamental designs, composed of 

 straight or curved lines, dots, circles, and human or grotesque faces. 

 Upon the surfaces of their wooden dishes they frequently paint a ground 

 color of redj upon which, as well as upon those that are not colored, are 

 drawn in black various well made patterns and figures representing 

 totem animals, personal markings, or mythological creatures. 



DRAWING 



The Eskimo also possess considerable skill in map making. While 

 traveling between the Yukon delta and the Kuskokwim, several men 

 drew for me excellent maps of the districts with which they were 

 familiar, although probably they had never seen a map of any kind 

 made by a white man. At other points to the northward of St Michael 

 considerable skill was manifested by several persons in sketching out 

 lines of the coast, with its indentations and projections. 



During one winter at St Michael a young Eskimo, about 23 or 24 years 

 of age, came from the country of the Kaviak peninsula and remained 

 about the station. While there he 1 &quot; took great pleasure in looking at 



