Meyer on Nephrite from Alaska. 3tl 



tation into America, and it will be the same as to American 

 jadeite. It is also autochthonous. This might, in advance, 

 be confidently asserted ; how much more so now that the 

 rough nephrite has been discovered. 



" It was, indeed, long a matter of doubt, whether there 

 occurred in America any nephrite implements, or whether 

 all the so-called mineral from that continent was not jadeite. 

 Both Prof. A. Arzruni, of Breslau, (Zeitschrift fur Ethno- 

 logie, 1883, p. 1*72), and myself, arrived at the conclusion 

 that there had not yet been produced any positive proof of 

 the occurrence of nephrite in America. Since that date, 

 Prof Arzruni has been able to declare, with certainty, 

 after microscopic examinations, that an axe from Venez- 

 uela was made of a nephrite of typical structure, (Z. f. Eth., 

 Ver., 1883, p. 528) : ' It is the one in the Ethnological 

 Museum in Berlin, from the Karsten collection, (1852), 

 V. A. 25, on the catalogue.' Prof. Fischer had already 

 made mention of this specimen in 1875 (N. u. J. p. 47, fig. 

 62), but could recognize it only as 'approaching a nephri- 

 toid composition.' 



" I shall, therefore, be all the more justified in describ- 

 ing here two nephrite implements which Messrs. Arthur 

 and Aurel Krause brought from the Thlinkeet Indians in 

 south-east Alaska, and which in the ' Catalogue of the 

 Ethnological Collection from the country of the Chukches 

 and South-east Alaska,' by these two gentlemen (Supple- 

 ment to part 4, Vol. V, of ' Deutschen Geogi-aphischen 

 Blatter,' 1882) is thus described : — 



No. 143. Small stone axe, named tayess* 



No. 168. Battle-axe of nephrite, with wooden handle, 

 named kcet-oo'. The sharpened stone is called tzoo-uta, the 

 handle, d'-shak-tee. 



" The specimens belong to the Bremen Natural History 

 collections and the director, Dr. Spengel, was so good as to 

 trust them to me for examination, after Prof. Arzruni had 

 kindly called my attention to their presence in this museum. 



* This is probably Tai-i (Tyee of Gibbs' vocabulary), a Chinook 

 jargon word, meaning ' chief or ' chief's,' commonly used to denote 

 anything especially valuable or of superior quality. — G. M. D. 



