288  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
transition  have  become  more  and  more  stylized,  resulting  finally  in 
the  stiffly  conventional  geometric  art  of  the  present  time.  It  is  of 
interest  to  note  in  this  connection  that  there  is  no  basis  for  the  as- 
sumption that  the  simple  Y  figure  had  its  origin  in  a  tree  design,  a 
raven's  foot,  or  a  w^hale's  tail ;  on  the  contrary,  as  Boas  has  already 
indicated  (1908,  p.  325),  these  more  elaborate  forms  of  the  Y  are 
later  specializations  to  which  various  realistic  meanings  have  become 
attached  secondarily.  In  its  oldest  recognizable  form,  in  Punuk  art, 
the  Y  figure  is  always  plain  with  no  suggestion  of  any  life  form.  It 
differs  from  the  modern  Y  in  being  rather  large,  in  often  having  a 
dot  at  the  base,  and  in  usually  being  connected  with  a  unit  design, 
whereas  in  modern  Eskimo  art  it  is  smaller  and  usually  rises  from 
a  base  line. 
In  attempting  to  trace  the  origin  of  modern  Alaskan  Eskimo  art  it 
is  important  first  of  all  to  observe  that  the  art  which  is  typical  of 
northern  and  northwestern  Alaska,  from  Norton  Sound  northward, 
is  quite  different  from  that  which  prevails  from  Norton  Sound  south- 
ward to  Bristol  Bay.  In  the  latter  region  we  find  an  art  style  based 
on  Punuk  elements :  nucleated  concentric  circles,  often  with  spurs 
attached  to  the  periphery ;  straight,  deeply  incised  lines,  either  single  or 
in  bands ;  pairs  of  spurs  attached  to  lines ;  detached  dots ;  and  Y  figures. 
The  close  resemblances  between  Punuk  art  in  its  later  phases  and  the 
modern  geometric  art  of  southwestern  Alaska  (Bristol  Bay  to  the 
Yukon)  indicate  that  we  are  dealing  with  two  aspects  of  the  same 
general  art  style.  The  differences  between  the  two  are  mainly  in  the 
organization  of  the  design.  In  the  modern  art  the  design  elements 
are  usually  detached,  or  if  connected,  are  repetitive.  In  early  Punuk 
art,  as  in  Old  Bering  Sea,  there  is  usually  a  continuity  of  design  and 
very  often  a  studied  arrangement  of  the  elements  in  relation  to  sur- 
face contours.  The  modern  art  of  southwestern  Alaska  may,  there- 
fore, be  regarded  as  a  disintegrated  form  of  Punuk  art. 
From  Norton  Sound  northward  we  find  a  simpler  style  of  geo- 
metric art,  based  largely  upon  the  use  of  the  spurred  line,  usually  in 
the  form  of  the  alternate  spur  design.  The  Y  figure  and  the  simple 
nucleated  circle  are  also  present,  but  there  is  no  evidence  of  the  bands 
of  parallel  lines  or  the  more  elaborate  concentric  circles  that  are  typical 
of  the  region  to  the  southward.  At  Norton  Sound,  which  is  the  divid- 
ing line,  there  is  a  blending  of  the  two  styles,  the  northern  style  pre- 
dominating. Correlated  with  these  differences  in  geometric  art  is 
the  wide-spread  occurrence  in  the  northern  region  of  the  well-known 
pictographic  art.  This  distinction  between  northern  and  southern  art 
is  consistent  with  a  general  dichotomy  of  modern  Alaskan  Eskimo 
