DOUBLE-POINTED BONE IMPLEMENTS. 



13 



grooved bone implements in the United States National Museum, obtained from 

 Eskimos of Norton Sound, in Alaska, by Mr. E. W. Nelson, who went to that 

 region in 1877, and remained there about four years, engaged in investigations 



FIG. 2. Double-pointed bone implement used in catching birds. 



(48571). 



Eskimos, Norton Sound, Alaska. 



in the interest of the United States Signal Office and the National Museum. 

 These pointed rods, Mr. Nelson informs me, are used by the natives for catching 

 sea-gulls and murres, which they eat, using also the skins of the latter as a 

 material for coats. A cord made of braided grass, and from fifteen to eighteen 

 inches long, is looped to the groove of these pointed bones, and fastened laterally 

 with the other end to a trawl-line kept extended by anchored buoys,* the bone 

 being baited with a small fish, into which it is inserted lengthwise. The trawl- 

 lines, with the short baited cords attached to them at intervals, are set near the 

 breeding-places of those birds. 



I 



Fio. 3. 



Fw. 1. 



Fio. 5. 



FIB. 6. 



Fia. 7. 



Fio. 8. 



All 



FIGS. 3-8. Double-pointed bone implements. La Madelaine. 



Similar bone rods, as stated, have occurred in French caves inhabited during 

 the reindeer-period. Figs. 3 to 8f represent a number of such pointed implements 



*The buoys are either worked blocks of wood or inflated bladders of seals, walruses, etc., and the anchors 

 ordinary stones of suitable size. The stone is attached to the buoy by a raw-hide line. 

 t Reliquiae Aquitanicse ; Figs. 10-15 on B Plate VI. 



