GRAPHIC ART OF THE ESKIMOS. 783 



though in former times they were prepared from mineral and vegetable 

 substances. 



Plate 17 represents two saws used in cutting ivory. The specimen 

 shown in iig. 1 is from Port Clarence, and appears to be made of a 

 piece of a steel saw of American manufacture, but from the appearance 

 of the specimen the teeth were iiled into it by the native. It is 

 hafted to a piece of ivory and secured by means of a i&amp;gt;iece of metal, 

 apparently a nail. 



Plate 17, fig. 2, represents a saw of a thinner piece of metal with a 

 very irregularly filed cutting edge. It is attached to a piece of ivory, 

 and was obtained at Anderson River. This instrument was used in 

 splitting walrus tusks lengthwise, as well as cutting them into shorter 

 pieces when necessary. In the bone or ivory comb represented in Plate 

 22, fig. 4, may be seen the effects of native sawing and an attempt to 

 make teeth. 



Several forms of knives before referred to are illustrated in plate 15. 

 The upper left-hand figure (fig. 1) is a Avood- working knife, obtained at 

 St. Michaels, and sent to the Museum by Mr. E. W. Nelson. The handle 

 is made of a rib, a slot in the forAvard end being made there to receive 

 the laterally curved blade, and in this respect resembling to a limited 

 degree the type used by most of the Indians of the Great Lakes. The 

 blade is secured by means of a thong. 



Upon the back or obverse side of the handle is a depression one-eighth 

 of an inch deep and five-sixteenths of an inch in diameter, which shows 

 ample evidence of having been used in holding a fire drill, or some other 

 variety of drill. Upon the front side of the handle appears the outlines 

 of three sailing A^essels, immediately behind the right-hand figure being 

 a pit surrounded by a circle Avith four radiating lines, beyond which are 

 indications of an attempt to make other concentric circles. 



These knives are used in fashioning Avood into various forms, and 

 also, sometimes, in shaving the roughened edges of ivory rods. 



The specimen at the upper right hand (fig. 2) is from Kotzebue Sound. 

 The handle, like the preceding, is made of a rib, while the arrow-shaped 

 piece of metal constituting the blade is secured by means of two riA 7 ets, 

 one of iron and one of copper, while the anterior, a third one, has fallen 

 out, leaving only the perforation. 



The cutting edge is slightly concave from point to base and may 

 have been made so intentionally for the purpose of causing slight con 

 vexity to the surface operated upon. This style of knife is also some 

 times employed in shaving doAvii ivory rods to the desired form and 

 thickness. 



The third specimen (fig. 3) was obtained at Norton Sound. This bone 

 gouge or chisel represents the type of tool used for stripping off birch 

 bark for canoes before the iron tools were introduced. It is apparently 

 made of the leg bone of a reindeer and bears ornamentation of peculiar 

 interest. The transverse bars consist of parallel lines by twos, and 



