i 7 4 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



it came from Greenland or Hudson Bay, or from Alaska, and even 

 what part of Alaska it came from. 



I had spent two years among the Alaskan Eskimos when I 

 was one of the naturalists of the Point Barrow Expedition in 

 1881-'83, and was especially interested in anything concerning 

 them, particularly about their implements and weapons, as I had 

 made a thorough study of these while preparing the report on the 

 ethnological results of the expedition. Consequently, my curi- 

 osity was immediately aroused by a little notice that I accident- 

 ally ran across in the Norwegian scientific paper Naturen. Speak- 

 ing of the meeting of the Videnskabs-selskab (Scientific Society) 

 of Christiania, on June 11, 1886, the paper said that the curator of 

 the museum exhibited a throwing stick found among driftwood 

 at Godthaab, Greenland, different from those used in Greenland, 

 but just like those used in Alaska. It was suggested that it had 

 made the same journey as the " Jeannette relics " found at Ju- 

 lianehaab. Now, I have heretofore been inclined to be rather 

 skeptical about the " Jeannette relics," but here, it seemed to me, 

 was something that could be corroborated. I felt sure that if I 

 could see the specimen, or a good drawing of it, I could, with the 

 help of the museum collections (I was employed at the Smithso- 

 nian Institution at the time), make absolutely sure whether it was 

 Alaskan or not. 



At that time I was in correspondence with Dr. Rink, the 

 famous authority on the Eskimos of Greenland, since deceased, 

 but who was then living in Christiania. So I wrote to him for 

 information, and soon received all that I wanted, with a carefully 

 drawn outline of the specimen. There was no doubt about it at 

 all ! It was perfectly Alaskan in pattern, and, moreover, so like 

 specimens from a certain region near Bering Strait that one 

 could almost be certain that it came from there. I at once wrote 

 to Dr. Rink, telling him of my conclusions. 



On the strength of my identification of the specimen Dr. Rink 

 published an article in the journal of the Danish Geographical 

 Society, reviewing the whole history of the implement, and in 

 doing so produced more evidence of the authenticity of the 

 "find." It seems that Dr. Rink picked up the specimen himself 

 while serving as an official of the Danish Government at Godt- 

 haab. This at once disposes of any suspicion of its being a 

 "plant." It was lying on the beach among the driftwood, and 

 though he and his Eskimo companions recognized it as different 

 from anything used in Danish Greenland, he laid it aside with- 

 out paying particular attention to it, fancying it came from East 

 Greenland, as it is well known that the driftwood found on the 

 west coast of Greenland comes down the eastern shore with the 

 current and turns up round Cape Farewell. He kept it till 1886, 



