22 



REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



of the intestines of the seal, the edges being sewed or cemented, and 

 the whole ornamented with tufts of hair or feathers in brilliant colors. 

 Glimpses of in-door arts and employments are obtained from specimens 

 of earrings, baskets, woven articles, sewing, paintings, and implements, 

 together with the ever-present pipe, of which there is one with a deco- 

 rated stem, carved by a Colosh. The illustrations are further extended 

 by wooden trays and dishes, ornamented with carved figures of animals ; 

 water-tight baskets, in which provisions are boiled by dropping red-hot 

 stones into the water ; mats of simple checquer pattern ; carved 

 handles of the black horn of the Eocky Mountain goat, exhibiting an 

 intricate series of ornaments, and fastened by the aid of heat and pres- 

 sure to the broader horn of the moose, or of the Eocky Mountain sheep, 

 to form a spoon or a ladle. Among the carvings is a remarkable series 

 in walrus ivory of objects in miniature, representing table knives, spoons, 

 candlesticks, boiling kettles, with covers, copied from objects introduced 

 by foreigners ; also the animals of the country, such as beaver, moose, 

 whales, seals; a female otter followed by her young; likewise a man 

 spearing a bear; a group of men attacking a reindeer, and several other 

 human figures. These miniature specimens of carvings, which are exe- 

 cuted with great neatness and fidelity, evince a minute observation of 

 nature, as well as considerable skill in art. A Colosh painter's kit 

 belonging to this collection, contains a number of brushes very neatly 

 made and of sizes suitable for fine or coarse work. Although the assort- 

 ment of colors is small, being limited to red, blue, yellow, and black, yet 

 the whole collection of specimens relative to art shows an advance in 

 this line beyond anything before observed in the northern races. Among 

 other articles is the dance rattle, commonly used by the coast tribes, and 

 consisting of a hollow, oval, wooden box, usually in the form of a bird, 

 gaily painted, containing pebbles; also head ornaments, of grotesque 

 form; head dresses, -with wooden masks, having distorted features; like- 

 wise ornaments of stone finely executed, and representing birds, fish, and 

 serpents in the form of a ring; besides numerous samples of the same in 

 wood and bone. 



From Lieutenant T. M. Eing, United States Army, stationed at Fort 

 Wrangel, in Alaska, we have received an important collection of ob- 

 jects, among which are models of the bardoslca, or canoe, with paddles, 

 of very neat workmanship ; the head of a fish spear, and several bul- 

 lets made of copper ; two fish-hooks of a metal resembling silver, 

 and halibut hooks of wood ; also two specimens illustrating the form in 

 which provisions are preserved for winter use, one of which is a spheri- 

 cal ball of the fruit of Bubus chamamorus, and the other is the com»- 

 pressed inner bark of a coniferous tree, which may serve to allay hun- 

 ger by distending the stomach. A stone hammer and two pestles are 

 samples of articles still in use, and an ancient barbed and notched bone 

 fish spear exhibits the forms of similar implements discovered in the 

 prehistoric caves of Europe. A full series of carved wooden dishes 



