3l6  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
related  to  these.  As  Jenness  has  most  convincingly  shown  (1933,  p. 
389-395),  the  Dorset  culture  cannot  be  regarded  as  merely  a  phase 
of  the  Thule.  It  was  an  independent  culture,  extending  from  north 
Greenland  to  south  Labrador,  antedating  the  Thule  culture  in  parts 
of  these  regions,  contempwraneous  with  it  in  others  and  finally  no 
doubt  extinguished  by  it.  Under  such  conditions  it  is  natural  that 
Dorset  objects  should  sometimes  be  found  at  Thule  sites  and  also 
that  both  cultures  should  have  been  affected  by  the  contacts  thus 
indicated.  Until  the  Dorset  culture  is  more  thoroughly  elucidated, 
we  cannot  know  the  full  part  it  may  have  had  in  the  formation  of 
the  present  Eskimo  culture,  but  the  evidence  at  hand  suggests  that 
at  least  some  of  the  most  characteristic  forms  of  Eastern  harpoon 
heads  may  be  traced  back  to  this  source. 
We  will  return  now  to  Bering  Strait  and  see  what  relation  if  any 
exists  between  the  older  forms  of  harpoon  heads  there  and  those 
found  to  the  southward.  Archeological  data  are  lacking  for  the 
mainland  of  Alaska  from  Norton  Sound  to  Bristol  Bay,  so  that 
we  know  nothing  as  to  the  cultural  developments  that  have  taken 
place  in  that  region.  The  modern  harpoon  heads  of  southwest  Alaska — 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Yukon  to  the  Alaska  Peninsula — are  rather 
distinctive  in  appearance,  as  are  so  many  other  cultural  features  in 
this  region,  but  as  yet  there  is  nothing  to  throw  light  upon  their 
origin.  It  cannot  be  known,  for  instance,  whether  the  tri furcated 
spurs  sometimes  found  on  small  closed  socket  harpoon  heads  on 
Nunivak  Island  and  the  adjoining  mainland  represent  a  continuation 
of  this  tradition  from  Old  Bering  Sea  times.  The  harpoon  heads  from 
the  Aleutian  Islands  figured  by  Jochelson  (1925,  pi.  27,  b)  probably 
do  not  include  any  very  old  types.  They  have  closed  sockets  and 
apparently  an  end  blade  at  right  angles  to  the  line  hole.  The  sys- 
tematic excavations  of  de  Laguna  have  shown  that  at  Cook  Inlet 
this  form  of  harpoon  head  is  later  than  the  bladeless  form  with  open 
socket.  The  latter  form  de  Laguna  calls  Thule  type  i  and  thinks 
(1934,  p.  187)  that  it  "offers  the  strongest  proof  yet  advanced  in 
favor  of  Mathiassen's  hypothesis  of  an  Alaskan  Thule  culture  ante- 
dating the  Birnirk  and  Old  Bering  Sea  stages."  It  should  be  recog- 
nized, however,  that  these  Cook  Inlet  heads,  simple  though  they  are 
and  therefore  inevitably  close  to  any  other  open  socketed,  bladeless 
form,  are  by  no  means  identical  with  the  Thule  heads.  The  lateral  posi- 
tion of  some  of  the  line  holes,  the  unusual  breadth  and  tapering  shape 
of  the  socket,  and  the  form  of  the  spur,  which  is  sometimes  median, 
sometimes  lateral  and  flaring,  are  all  features  which  give  these  heads 
a  local   stamp  and   readily  distinguish   them   from   all   others,   even 
