354  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
Thule  type  (Mathiassen,  1927,  vol.  2,  fig.  i,  28)  and  the  modified 
type  described  by  Thalbitzer  (1909,  pp.  476,  477)  represent  inter- 
mediate stages  between  the  older  Alaskan  form  and  the  specialized 
form  of  the  east,  just  as  Thalbitzer  had  recognized. 
As  to  the  place  of  origin  of  the  flanged-winged  type  of  needle  case 
the  present  evidence  points  to  the  Arctic  coast  of  Alaska,  probably 
around  Barrow,  rather  than  St.  Lawrence  Island ;  for  it  is  on  the 
Alaskan  mainland  that  the  type  has  centered,  and  furthermore  the 
Punuk  examples  (pi.  65,  figs,  i,  2)  are  almost  certainly  later  than 
those  excavated  from  the  old  Barrow  sites.  On  the  other  hand  the 
tubular  type  with  neither  wings  nor  flanges  appears  to  be  the  oldest 
of  all.  It  is  this  type  which  is  characteristic  of  the  Old  Bering  Sea 
culture,  and  which,  as  Thalbitzer  has  pointed  out,  is  widely  diffused 
over  northern  Eurasia,  where  it  is  found  among  the  Lapps,  Samoyed, 
Tungus,  Gilyak,  Ainu,  etc.  (Thalbitzer,  1924,  p.  285.)  In  Europe 
the  tubular  needle  case  goes  back  to  Paleolithic  times.  It  is  evident, 
as  Thalbitzer  has  remarked,  that  the  needle  case  is  an  old  element  in 
the  circumpolar  regions,  and  one  indicative  of  far  flung  cultural  rela- 
tionships. In  this  connection  it  should  be  noted  that  in  one  instance  at 
least  there  is  a  surprisingly  close  resemblance,  to  some  extent  even  in 
decoration,  between  one  of  the  old  Ainu  needle  cases  from  the  Kuriles 
(Torii,  1919,  p.  32,  fig,  3)  and  two  recently  excavated  from  the 
Kola  Peninsula  in  northern  Russia  (Schmidt,  1930,  pi.  4,  figs.  2,  3). 
That  the  needle  case  in  Asia  goes  back  at  least  to  Neolithic  times  is 
shown  by  the  discovery  of  a  specimen  in  a  cave  deposit  of  that  age 
at  Sha  Kuo  T'un,  in  southwestern  Manchuria  (Andersson,  1923  b; 
1934,  p.  195)  and  another  at  a  Neolithic  site  on  the  Angara  R'iA^er, 
Irkutsk,  Siberia  (Menghin,  1931,  pi.  21,  fig.  17).  The  needle  case 
discovered  by  Andersson  was  made  from  a  fox  humerus,  and  that 
from  Siberia  of  a  bird  bone ;  in  both  instances  the  bone  needles  were 
found  inside. 
Jumping  Stones 
The  presence  of  "  jumping  stones  "  on  St.  Lawrence  Island  is  in- 
teresting and  not  a  little  puzzling,  as  these  rows  of  spaced  stones,  or 
uangissats,  have  not  been  previously  reported  outside  of  Greenland 
(Porsild,  1920,  pp.  297,  304.  Thalbitzer,  1925,  p.  245),  They  are 
found  at  a  number  of  places  on  St.  Lawrence  Island:  at  Gambell; 
about  12  miles  south  of  Gambell  (pi.  i,  fig.  2)  ;  at  Kitneapalok;  at 
Cape  Kialegak,  and  doubtless  at  other  places  also.  I  have  been  told 
by  the  Eskimos  that  they  also  occur  in  Siberia. 
