NELSON] CARVING AND DRAWING 197 
are not regarded by them as having any particular value, and I was 
often amused at the delight with which they sold specimens of their 
work for one or two needles, a brass button, or some similar trifle. 
The women of the district between the Yukon delta and Kuskokwim 
river are not very proficient in needlework or in ornamenting their gar- 
ments, the artistic skill appearing to be confined to the men; but on 
the islands and the adjacent American shore of Bering strait, while the 
men make very handsome ivory work, the women are equally skilful in 
beautiful ornamental needlework on articles of clothing. This is nota- 
bly the case with the finely decorated sealskin boots for which the 
natives of Diomede and King islands are noted. 
The men at Point Hope, on the Arctic coast, are also skilful in ivory 
work. About the shores of Kotzebue sound and Bering strait various 
articles and implements, such as celts, knives, knife sharpeners, and 
labrets, are made from nephrite. 
On the Asiatic shore the Eskimo appear to have lost much of their 
skill in carving and other ornamental work; consequently their cloth- 
ing and implements, both on the mainland coast and on. St Lawrence 
island, are rudely made. 
In ascending Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, as the coast districts are 
left behind skill in carving becomes less and less marked among the 
Eskimo, until those living as neighbors to the Tinné appear to have 
but little ability in that art. Paimut, the last Eskimo village on the 
Yukon, was notable for the fact that the tools and other implements in 
use were as rude as those of the adjacent Tinné. 
In addition to their skill in carving, the Eskimo of the coast display 
great ability in etching upon tools and implements, notably on ivory 
drill-bows, scenes from their daily life, records of hunts, or other events. 
They also produce a great variety of ornamental designs, composed of 
straight or curved lines, dots, circles, and human or grotesque faces. 
Upon the surfaces of their wooden dishes they frequently paint a ground 
color of red, upon which, as well as upon those that are not colored, are 
drawn in black various well made patterns and figures representing 
totem animals, personal markings, or mythological creatures. 
DRAWING 
The Eskimo also possess considerable skill in map making. While 
traveling between the Yukon delta and the Kuskokwim, several men 
drew for me excellent maps of the districts with which they were 
familiar, although probably they had never seen a map of any kind 
made bya white man. At other points to the northward of St Michael 
considerable skill was manifested by several persons in sketching out- 
lines of the coast, with its indentations and projections. 
During one winter at St Michael a young Eskimo, about 23 or 24 years 
of age, came from the country of the Kaviak peninsula and remained 
about the station. While there he took great pleasure in looking at 
