320  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
population  existed  along  the  Arctic  coast  from  Bering  Strait  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Kolyma,  it  would  be  reasonable  to  expect  that  its  in- 
fluences might  be  traced  even  farther.  It  is  significant  in  this  connec- 
tion that  there  has  recently  been  discovered  an  old  Eskimo-like  cul- 
ture on  the  Ya-mal  Peninsula  at  the  mouth  of  the  Ob  River,  at  the 
westernmost  extremity  of  Arctic  Siberia.  This  old  culture,  which 
seems  to  have  differed  in  many  respects  from  that  of  the  Samoyed, 
the  present  occupants  of  the  region,  is  described  as  having  made  use 
of  earthenware  pottery,  baleen,  bone  and  ivory  implements,  toggle 
harpoon  heads,  and  the  kayak  (Cernecov,  1935).  This  isolated  dis- 
covery, far  to  the  west  of  the  present  Eskimo  domain,  leads  one  to 
expect  that  future  excavations  may  reveal  a  similar  stage  of  culture 
in  other  parts  of  Arctic  Siberia,  where  in  earlier  times  there  may  have 
lived  groups  of  sedentary  maritime  peoples  who  hunted  sea  mammals 
with  the  toggle  harpoon  and  whose  culture  in  other  respects  conformed 
to  the  general  Eskimo  pattern. 
There  are  few  references  to  the  use  of  the  toggle  harpoon  head  in 
northern  Europe ;  here,  as  is  so  often  the  case  elsewhere,  this  form 
is  subordinated  to  the  barbed  head.  However,  the  toggle  form  is 
reported  from  old  sites  in  Norway  (Solberg,  1909,  p.  40,  figs.  39-42; 
BjzJe,  1934,  pi.  2,  figs.  14-16)  ;  Kola  Peninsula  (Schmidt,  1930,  pi.  i, 
figs.  6,  7)  ;  and  also  from  Yugoslavia  (Curcic,  19 12,  pp.  505,  507, 
figs.  14,  15,  17).  They  have  also  been  found  in  Lake  dwelling  sites 
in  France — Lake  of  Bourget, — and  Austria- — Laibach-Moor  (Keller, 
1878,  pis.  161,  fig.  6,  168,  figs.  14,  20).  Most  of  the  examples  illus- 
trated are  simple  bladeless  heads  which  in  a  very  general  way  resemble 
some  of  the  simpler  Dorset  and  Thule  types.  Two  of  those  figured 
by  Solberg  have  double  line  holes  like  some  of  the  old  Japanese  types ; 
figure  43  has  a  bifurcated  basal  spur,  also  a  Japanese  feature.  These 
simple  European  toggle  harpoon  heads  are  no  doubt  related  in  some 
way  to  the  Asiatic-American  forms,  but  until  more  information  is 
available  on  the  extensive  intervening  area  it  will  hardly  be  possible 
to  form  any  clear  idea  as  to  just  what  the  relationship  has  been.  It 
would  also  appear  probable,  as  the  writer  has  suggested  (Collins,  1935, 
p.  467),  that  some  significance  should  be  attached  to  the  fact  that 
both  the  Old  Bering  Sea  and  Birnirk  harpoon  heads  are  often  equipped 
with  small  stone  side  blades,  a  technique  which  was  also  common  in 
northern  Europe  during  the  Maglemose  period. 
The  ultimate  origin  of  the  toggle  harpoon  head  is  apparently  to  be 
sought  in  northern  Eurasia.  In  America,  where  the  greatest  develop- 
ment has  occurred,  it  is  confined  to  the  Eskimo  territory  and  to  ad- 
jacent regions  where  Eskimo  influence  has  probably  been  exerted. 
