872 The Northernmost Inhabitants of the Earth, (September, | 
from the shaft. In both of these illustrations the long line has 
been severed near the loop, The first one of these figures shows 
immediately below the rivet two horizontal grooves, which must 
be regarded as rude ornamentation. They are similar to the 
lines observed on many palzolithic implements from the Dor- 
dogne, which were generally considered as marks of ownership. 
Probably these latter are likewise rude ornaments only. They 
may perhaps have served to record numerically certain occur- 
rences, aS, for instance, the killing of a reindeer, a bear or some 
other game. It is not a matter of necessity that a primitive peo- 
ple should require special markings to designate their property. 
It stands to reason that if everyone manufactures his own wea- 
pons that these will possess a certain individuality like the hand- 
writing of a person. The power of observation of an Eskimo 
who accompanied me on a sledge journey was so very acute that 
he was enabled to distinguish among eleven sledge tracks we came 
across whose sledge had made each one of the impressions in the 
hard snow. And this man was by no means more intelligent 
than his tribal relations. Whoever can discriminate to such an 
extent will certainly be able to recognize his own weapons with- 
out difficulty among others. ; 
Fig. 124, represents a knife, copied from Capt. Ross’ narrative. 
Figs. 13, 14, 15 and 16 are inserted solely for the purpose of show- 
ing ornamentations as used by western Eskimos. The illustra: — 
tion of a stone spear-head, taken from an old grave in North 
Greenland, is here reproduced of two-thirds natural size. 
Fig. 17. 
m . * i 
With such primitive lances, supported only by their ¢ A 
Itanese will dauntlessly attack the polar bear, who ee the 
turns out to be a most disagreeable adversary. 
old hunters of the tribe bore on their bodies traces pi be 
laceration. They will fearlessly cope with the pe wat 
come victors over the huge bearded seal, and will patientY 
