NO.    I  ARCHEOLOGY    OF    ST.    LAWKKNCK    ISLAND COLLINS  333 
of  the  Pacific  region.  There  seems  no  reason  why  skin  armor  in 
America  should  not  have  developed  independently  and  the  same  could 
have  been  true  of  rod  and  slat  armor,  although  the  possibility  of  a 
connection  between  the  latter  and  that  of  the  Eskimo  cannot  be  denied. 
In  other  words,  this  aspect  of  the  problem  remains  to  be  solved. 
Men's  Knives 
The  form  of  knife  most  common  to  both  the  Old  Bering  Sea  and 
Punuk  stages  is  that  with  a  short,  wide  wooden  handle  and  an  end 
blade  of  rubbed  slate  (pi.  38,  fig.  i  ;  pi.  78,  fig.  8),  a  type  which  has 
continued  in  use  in  Alaska  until  recent  times  (Murdoch,  fig.  99;  Nel- 
son, pi.  47,  figs.  2,  3).  In  addition  to  this  type,  others  with  side  blades 
were  used  during  the  Old  Bering  Sea  period  (pi.  38,  figs.  2-4).  The 
small  bone  whittling  knife  or  "  antler  chisel  ",  which  Murdoch  de- 
scribes from  Point  Barrow  (figs.  143,  144)  and  which  is  so  charac- 
teristic of  the  Thule  culture  is  also  an  old  element  on  St.  Lawrence, 
where  it  belongs  to  both  the  Old  Bering  Sea  and  Punuk  stages  (pi. 
38,  figs.  5-7  ;  pi.  78,  figs.  4,  5) .  Mason  also  reports  it  from  the  Birnirk 
( 1930,  p.  386).  The  knife  with  slightly  curved  bone  handle  and  small 
narrow  blade  set  in  one  edge  near  the  tip  (the  prototype  of  the  modern 
"  crooked  knife  ")  was  unknown  during  the  Old  Bering  Sea  period. 
It  was  present,  however,  in  the  Punuk  (pi.  78,  figs.  1-3)  in  a  form 
which  is  similar  to  the  slightly  curved  Thule  type  (Mathiassen,  1927, 
vol.  I,  pi.  18,  figs.  2-4;  pi.  83,  fig.  10). 
The  knife  sharpeners  made  of  very  small  walrus  tusks  (pi.  38, 
figs.  11-14)  seem  to  be  a  local  type  on  St.  Lawrence  Island,  known 
to  all  culture  stages. 
The  bone  knife  or  dagger  (pi.  79,  figs.  4-6)  is  another  element  which 
indicates  relationship  between  the  Punuk  stage  on  St.  Lawrence  Island, 
modern  Point  Barrow,  and  the  Thule  culture.  Knives  of  this  kind 
do  not  seem  to  have  been  used  during  the  Old  Bering  Sea  period,  and 
Mason  does  not  mention  them  as  occurring  in  the  old  material  from 
Barrow.  The  modern  Point  Barrow  type  (Murdoch,  figs.  174,  175) 
is  rather  heavy  and  clumsy,  but  another  specimen  from  Barrow,  fig- 
ured by  Mathiassen  (1930  a,  pi.  8,  fig.  8)  and  one  from  Naujan 
(Mathiassen,  1927,  vol.  i,  pi.  13,  fig.  15)  are  very  similar  to  the  Punuk 
knives. 
Adz  Heads 
The  elaborate  and  highly  specialized  adz  heads  of  the  Old  Bering 
Sea  and  Punuk  cultures  present  a  marked  contrast  to  the  rather  simple 
and  uniform  types  known  from  other  parts  of  the  Eskimo  territory. 
