934 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



small nucleated circles alternating with vertical lines terminating 

 above in a similar small nucleated circle, from which diverge two short 

 lines, which in turn end in similar rings. The entire outline of the 

 character is that of the simpler form of the tree symbol, though it is 

 believed to denote the fruit of the arctic plant known as the Vaccinium. 

 This belief is strengthened by the occurrence of similar characters 

 known to denote this plant, and from which a native carrying a bucket 

 or kautag is shown as in the act of plucking fruit. Compare fig. 70, p. 863. 



Above these characters are a series of larger nucleated rings, each 

 with three radiating lines, which are without doubt intended to repre 

 sent the flowers of this same plant. That the circle with such exter 

 nal ornamental appendages is intended to represent flowers has been 

 explained in Mr. Turner s communication above noted. 



The circles portrayed upon this specimen are the most delicate found 

 upon any of the specimens in the National Museum. They are appar 

 ently the work of an expert workman, and made with comparatively 

 delicate instruments. 



The arrangement of nucleated rings in the form of a triangle and 

 connected by short lines, as in the fruit or plant character above noted, 

 appears upon some Thlinkit bone ornaments shown, in plate 9, fig. 3. 

 The transmission of the character, or its suggestion, appears to have 

 come from the Innuit, the southern tribes being known to make this 

 pattern, and the intertribal relations with their eastern and southern 

 neighbors is constant. Being a shaman s ornament among the Thliukit 

 would suggest the idea that tbe original signification of the character 

 was unknown to them. 



Plate 68, fig. 6, represents a very beautiful rod of ivory from Kotzebue 

 Sound. It is perforated at one end like a bag handle, but sharpened 

 at the other in imitation of a bodkin. Three sides are decorated. The 

 peculiarity of the ornamentation is the insertion in the blank spaces of 

 nucleated rings, their association with these hunting expeditions being- 

 very much in imitation of the characters upon the petroglyphs at 

 Bohusliin, in Sweden, and shown in plates 75, 76, and others of like 

 character, showing simple nuclei or pits, as well as nucleated circles 

 attached to lines to represent human beings, exactly like some found 

 in the Shoshonean area of southern Nevada and in the Mold country. 

 The illustration in plate 75 represents at the extreme left four vertical 

 lines, with the zigzag and toothed pattern found upon other objects, 

 which has been designated as the fish trap or seal tooth pattern. The 

 next figure, a crescent, and is a symbolical whale tail. The two bars 

 leaning toward one another, between the whale tail and the walrus, 

 are the rude outlines of the sides of a habitation, the delicate indication 

 of the occupants within being shown. The remaining figures, as will 

 be observed, consist of a kaiak and several whales and walruses. The 

 groups upon the other sides of this rod are very much in imitation of 

 the preceding. 



