485 



like fragment of a wooden implement, length 13 cm, greatest 

 breadth 4-5 cm. At the broad end it is flat and thin, over 

 the middle it attains its greatest thickness, at the narrow end 

 it is circular in cross section. All the edges are rounded, and 

 there is no ridge on any of the side surfaces. On the flat 

 upper side is seen a conoid depression, deepening inwardly; 

 its outer edge follows quite closely along the side edge of the 

 shaft, while the opposite border, which is deeply cut and 

 almost hollowed, is slightly curved and has a ridge between 

 the depression and the neighbouring edge of the shaft. The 

 bottom of the depression is flat, but slants evenly up at the 

 bottom corner towards the base of the implement, where a 

 broad ridge between the depression and the basal edge of the 

 implement is likewise produced; this basal ridge forms a 

 rounded angle, less than a right angle, with the lateral ridge 

 just mentioned. This latter is bevelled and rounds off into 

 the under side of the shaft. In the middle of the same edge 

 of the shaft there is a shallow incision, which may be con- 

 sidered to be a finger-rest. The under side of the implement, 

 as far as can be seen in the rather damaged wood, must have 

 been slightly convex, but in the part between the finger-rest 

 and the basal edge its surface has a characteristic slant where- 

 by this corner of the shaft is rendered thinner than the middle. 

 In this fragment we recognize the same implement which 

 Ryder ^) found further to the south, in Scoresby Sund, and of which 

 he gives an illustration. It was only natural that he should inter- 

 pret it to be the handle of a throwing-stick of the type which 

 is employed for bird-darts, especially of the type which is 

 ■ nown from North Alaska, for there is really a resemblance 

 between the fragment found by him and the corresponding 

 part of a throwing-stick (though not the Greenland form of it) 

 and no other Eskimo implement with a handle of this kind was 



M Ryder 318, ßg. 17 b. 



