312 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1884. 



backing, though they are reversed on one bow from the Mackenzie re- 

 gion (Fig. 14 is this section of No. 1970, collected by Eoss), so that the 

 longer of the strands are stretched across the bends, which adds some- 

 what to the tension of the bow, but makes a less neat and compact 

 lashing than the common arrangement. This arrangement of the short 

 strands brings the greatest strength across the middle of the bow, where 

 it is most needed. 



All the strands between the hitches are divided into two equal par- 

 cels and twisted from the middle into two cables, thus greatly increas- 

 ing the tension to be overcome in drawing the string. These two cables 

 are fastened together by a sort of u figure-of-8 " knot, passing through 

 and around them, and are stopped firmly to the handle, after which the 

 whole is securely seized down with the end of the backing. This seiz- 

 ing is less complete in bows from the region of the Mackenzie. In one 

 case, after completing the seizing the end goes on to lay on a few strands 

 more, for a third cable, outside of and between the other two, which is 

 also twisted. (No. 89245, Figs. 9 and 10. End of cable cut off at a.) 



The ends of the long strands, between the nocks and the hitches of 

 the short strands, are sometimes wound with separate pieces. 



Bows of this pattern, differing only in details of the backing, are 

 used at the Mackenzie Eiver, at Point Barrow, Wainwright's Inlet, 

 Point Hope, and the Diomede Islands in Bering Strait, and probably at 

 intermediate points along the shores of the Arctic Ocean. 



As was said above, there are no bows in the collection from Kotzebue 

 Sound or the Kaviak Peninsula, but from several points in the region 

 in question, namely, from Kotzebue Sound, Hotham Inlet, Sledge Island, 

 and Cape Nome, have been obtained many of the ingenious little tools 

 for twisting the cables, and always in pairs, indicating that a two-cable 

 bow of the Arctic type is the prevailing if not the only weapon of the 

 kind used in these localities. 



The line of demarcation between this type and the preceding is not 

 sharply drawn, although there are no bows of the pattern which is ex- 

 clusively used as far north as Cape Eomanzoff, in the collection from 

 north of Bering Strait. 



From the Yukon delta we have one bow (Fig. 15, No. 33867, collected 

 by E. W. Nelson), which in proportional narrowness and thickness ap- 

 proaches the Arctic model, as it does in its complete seizing, though it 

 has a strong extra rib, and the genera) pa:tern of the backing is purely 

 southern. From the same region is another (Figs. 1(1 and 17, No. 8822, 

 collected by W. H. Dall), which in outline and size is essentially of the 

 straight southern type, though slightly narrower than usual, while 

 the backing is put on entirely in the Arctic manner, except that the 

 seizing is less complete. A large bow from Norton Sound is of the same 

 model, but has the Arctic backing complete in all its details, as does also 

 a small boy's bow from the same region. Still another from the same 



