8G 



attached to a sea-lion wliisker. Most of the small nondescript carvings 

 found in the shell-heaps can be referred to this species of ornament. Vari- 

 ous utensils and the bone heads of darts often received a few rude lines by- 

 way of ornament, or sometimes the patterns above mentioned. Everything 

 of this kind that we obtained from the shell-heaps was very crude. Some 

 of these articles, from the later jijrehistoric burial-places, were much mofe 

 ornate. The markings can seldom be accurately described as marks of 

 ownershij). I have never seen any definite mark or ornament of this nature 

 among the Aleuts or AVestern Innuit. They readily recognize their own 

 utensils and weapons without any such aid, and I believe the theory of 

 "marks of ownership", "batons of command", and such like, has been 

 stretched far beyond the point of endurance or accuracy, at least among 

 writers on the Innuit. Drawings, engravings on bone or wood, and pictures 

 of any kind, so f;ir as I have observed, are all subsequent to the period 

 covered by the shell-heap deposits. They are invariably quite modern, 

 though the taste for them is now widely spread among the Innuit, especially 

 those of the regions where ivory is readil}^ procured. The coloration of 

 wooden articles witli native pigments is of ancient origin, but all the more 

 elaborate instances that have come to my knowledge bore marks of com- 

 paratively recent origin. The pigments used were blue carbonates of iron 

 and copper ; the green fungus, or pezba, found in decayed birch and alder 

 wood ; haematite and red chalk ; Avhite infusorial or chalky earth ; black 

 charcoal, graphite, and micaceous ore of iron: A species of red was some- 

 times derived from pine bark or the cambium of the ground-willow. In 

 later jirehistoric burial-places, the Avooden carvings bear these colors nearly 

 as bright as when fii-st applied. 



Beads were made of sections of the hollow bones of birds, of bits of 

 gypsum imported from the continent, seal and orca teeth, and especially ol' 

 amber. This substance occurs sparingly in the lignitic deposits of Tanaga, 

 Unalashka, Atka, and Amchitka, and was reckoned of the highest value 

 by the Aleuts. The pieces were usually very small and were simply 

 pierced and roughly rounded. T have seen no ancient carved beads. 

 Pieces of the red bills of the auks, the claws of the little auk set one into 

 another like the "larkspur rings" of children, were used, with small bone 



