NO.    I  ARCHEOLOGY    OF    ST.    LAWRliNCE    ISLAND — COLLINS  355 
There  are  three  rows  of  these  jumping  stones  on  the  top  of  the 
Gambell  plateau.  The  principal  one  is  something  over  100  yards 
long  and  is  evidently  very  old,  as  the  stones  are  deeply  embedded  in 
the  ground  and  covered  over  with  moss  and  lichens.  The  ground  all 
around  has  been  cleared  of  stones,  some  of  which  have  been  placed 
in  two  piles  about  5  feet  high,  on  either  side  of  the  row  at  about  the 
center.  The  line  of  stones  curves  somewhat  but  extends  in  a  general 
north  and  south  direction.  The  stones  are  closely  spaced,  some  being 
hardly  more  than  a  foot  apart. 
These  stone  rows  are  not  used  at  the  present  time  and  the  Eskimos 
do  not  know  when  they  were  made.  According  to  my  informants  they 
were  used  by  young  men  who  were  training  to  be  runners  or  strong 
men.  While  carrying  a  heavy  log,  they  would  jump  over  and  between 
the  stones,  not  on  them  as  in  Greenland.  The  only  name  given  to  the 
stone  rows,  as  far  as  I  could  learn,  was  "  kitphakiltut  "  which  means 
simply  "  jumping  rapidly."  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  had  the 
same  function  as  those  in  Greenland  (Disko  Bay)  described  by 
Porsild  (1920,  p.  300)  : 
Nowadays  tlic  game  of  hopping  on  stone  rows  is  never  played  either  by 
children  or  by  adults.  When  accompanying  travelers,  however,  our  Greenlanders 
will,  just  for  fun,  hop  over  some  of  the  stones,  so  as  to  demonstrate  the  knowl- 
edge of  their  meaning.  In  old  times,  however,  the  game  belonged  to  the  rather 
large  number  of  sports  and  contests  engaged  in  either  as  a  pastime  among  the 
villagers,  or  as  challenges  to  strangers,  or  during  the  annual  feasts  when  con- 
troversies were  settled  by  juridical  drum  songs. 
....  My  informants  relate  that  the  player  also  had  to  carry  a  weight  in 
his  arms,  such  as  a  bundle  of  sealskins,  the  dead  body  of  a  small  seal,  or  a 
live  dog. 
As  Thalbitzer  has  pointed  out,  there  are  numerous  Eskimo  games, 
contests,  festivals,  etc.,  which  can  be  traced  in  practically  identical 
form  from  Alaska  to  Greenland  and  which  denote  a  psychical  homo- 
geneity no  less  remarkable  than  that  to  be  observed  in  other  aspects 
of  their  culture  (1925).  These  jumping  stones  provide  another  strik- 
ing example  of  this  widespread  uniformity.  It  seems  strange  that 
they  should  have  been  found  thus  far  only  at  the  two  extremes  of 
the  Eskimo  territory,  but  later,  no  doubt,  they  will  be  found  in  the 
intervening  areas.  There  is  at  present  no  way  of  knowing  whether  on 
St.  Lawrence  Island  they  belong  to  the  Old  Bering  Sea,  the  Punuk,  or 
the  modern  culture,  for  they  are  found  near  sites  where  at  least  two,  if 
not  all  three,  of  the  stages  are  represented.  In  all  likelihood,  however, 
they  will  be  found  to  belong  to  a  later  stage  of  culture  than  the  Old 
Bering  Sea,  for  the  latter,  as  far  as  we  know,  did  not  extend  beyond 
