324  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
triangular  in  cross-section  like  many  of  the  Punuk  specimens,  but 
were  relatively  flat,  like  plate  74,  figure  8.  Most  of  them  were  barbed, 
a  few  of  the  older  ones,  from  Birnirk  (Wissler,  fig.  24,  a;  also  Mason, 
1930,  pi.  3),  having  sharp,  oblique  barbs  like  the  Old  Bering  Sea 
specimen  shown  in  plate  34,  figure  6.  Mostly,  however,  they  have 
heavier  barbs  like  plate  74,  figures  8-10.  The  form  of  the  tang  pro- 
vides a  more  significant  basis  of  comparison.  As  mentioned  above,  the 
tangs  of  the  Old  Bering  Sea  arrowheads  were  conical,  with  no 
shoulders  of  knobs  of  any  kind,  whereas  the  Punuk  specimens  were 
either  conical  or  provided  with  a  shoulder.  The  Birnirk  type,  if  we 
may  judge  from  Wissler  (fig.  24,  a,  c)  and  Mason  (p.  386  and  pi.  3) 
were  either  conical  or  shouldered.  However,  at  the  later  sites — Cape 
Smythe  and  Franklin  Bay — the  tangs  were  usually  provided  with 
small  knobs  (Wissler,  figs.  26,  27,  36). 
These  same  knobs  are  present  on  the  conical  tangs  of  many  of 
the  Thule  arrowheads,  though  the  shouldered  tang  and  the  obliquely 
cut  tang  are  also  typical.  With  regard  to  the  distribution  of  the  various 
forms  of  tangs,  Mathiassen  (1927,  vol.  2,  p.  46)  says: 
Thus  the  conical  tang  with  two  knobs  is  apparently  an  old  form  which  has 
once  been  generally  in  use  from  Alaska  to  Greenland ;  in  the  eastern  parts  of 
the  central  territory  it  was  supplanted  by  the  obliquely  cut  tang,  which  spread 
from  there  to  the  Polar  Eskimos ;  in  Greenland  it  was  superseded  by  the  screw- 
thread  ;  but  in  Alaska  and  in  the  other  western  regions,  as  also  among  the 
western  Central  Eskimos,  who  in  this  for  once  hold  together  with  the  Western 
Eskimos,  the  old  form  continued  to  prevail. 
From  the  distribution  in  Alaska,  it  would  now  seem  possible  to 
differentiate  also  between  the  Thule  forms  with  a  shoulder  and  those 
with  knobs,  the  shouldered  tang  being  the  original  Thule  form,  de- 
rived from  Alaska,  and  the  knobs  a  later  feature  which  appeared 
after  the  Thule  culture  had  become  established  in  the  Central  regions. 
The'  predominance  of  knobbed  tangs  at  the  later  sites  in  North  Alaska 
would  be  explained  as  being  one  of  the  numerous  elements  introduced 
into  that  region  by  a  late  return  migration  of  Thule  peoples  from  the 
eastward. 
Blunt-Pointed  Bird  Arrows 
Blunt  points  for  bird  arrows  do  not  seem  to  have  been  used  by  the 
Old  Bering  Sea  Eskimos.  The  earliest  form  at  Gambell  is  the  conical 
flat  based  type  (pi.  74,  fig.  13)  which  appeared  in  the  Punuk  stage. 
The  more  common  ovoid  form  (pi.  74,  fig.  12)  is  characteristic 
of  the  later  Punuk,  and  is  the  form  still  used  on  St.  Lawrence  Island. 
Blunt-pointed  bird  arrows  were  known  to  some  extent  to  the  Thule 
