MURDOCH. ] BOWS. 199 
from the Kaviak peninsula to the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers; and 
Il]. The Western type, confined to St. Lawrence Island and the main- 
land of Siberia. 
I have shown how these three types differ from each other and from 
the original type, and have expressed the opinion that these differences 
result from the different resources at the command of the people of dif- 
ferent regions. I have also endeavored to account for the fact that we 
find sporadie examples of the Arctic type, for instance as far south as 
the Yukon, by the well known habits of the Eskimo in regard to trad- 
ing expeditions. 
Outside of the region treated in my paper above referred to, there 
is very little material for a comparative study of Eskimo bows, either 
in the Museum or in the writings of travelers. Most writers have con- 
tented themselves with a casual reference to some of the more salient 
peculiarities of the weapon without giving any detailed information. 
Beginning at the extreme north of Greenland, we find that the so-called 
“Arctic Highlanders” have hardly any knowledge of the bow. Dr. 
Kane saw none during his intercourse with them, but Dr. Bessels! men- 
tions seeing one bow, made of pieces of antler spliced together, in the 
possession of a man at Ita. In Danish Greenland, the use of the bow 
has been abandoned for many years. When Crantz* wrote it had already 
gone out of use, though in Egede’s’ time it was still employed. It ap- 
pears to have been longer than the other Eskimo bows. Nordenskiéld* 
reproduces a picture of a group of Greenlanders from an old painting 
of the date of 1654in the Ethnographical Museum of Copenhagen. The 
man holds in his left hand a straight bow, which appears to have the 
backing reaching only part way to the ends like a western bow without 
the end cables, and yet twisted into two cables. If this representation 
be a correct one, this arrangement of the backing, taken in connection 
with what Crantz and Egede say of the great length of the bow, would 
be an argument in favor of my theory that the St. Lawrence Island 
bow was developed from the primitive form by lengthening the ends of 
the bow without lengthenimg the backing. The addition of the end 
cables would then be an after invention, peculiar to the western bow. 
In Baftin Land the bow is very rudely made, and approaches very closely 
to my supposed primitive form. Owing to the scarcity of wood in this 
region the bow was frequently made of reindeer antler, a substance still 
more unsuitable for the purpose than the soft coniferous woods used 
elsewhere. There are in the Museum three specimens of such antler 
bows, brought from Cumberland Gulf by Mr. Kumlien. 
1Naturalist, vol 8, No. 9, p. 869. 
2‘‘In former times they made use of bows for land game; they were made of soft fir, a fathom in 
length, and to make it the stiffer it was bound round with whalebone or sinews.”’ History of Green- 
land, vol. 1, p. 146. 
3Their Bow is of an ordinary Make, commonly made of Fir Tree, . . . and on the Back 
strengthened with Strings made of Sinews of Animals, twisted like Thread.” ‘‘The Bow is a good 
fathom long.” Greenland, p. 101. 
4 Voyage of the Vega, vol. 1, p. 41. 
