THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. 



shape. The materials are selected and prepared with great 

 care. The designs are spirited and well executed, and the 

 technique is of the highest order. 



The principal design upon all but one of the hats represents 

 the chase of the orca or killer whale. It has been harpooned, 

 and the harpoon line with attached floats is trailing behind. 

 A man standing in the bow of a canoe is about to dispatch the 

 animal with a lance. Other canoes, apparently empty, fill out 

 the design. The Indians of Nootka Sound and vicinity, as well 

 as the tribes to the southward, hunted the orca, but the animal 

 was held sacred by the northern coast tribes and was never 

 hunted by them. 



A very different design is shown upon the hat illustrated at 

 /, Plate I. The mythical bird is represented four times, twice 

 by itself near the brim and upon opposite sides, once hovering 

 just above an orca, and again with the whale in its talons. A 

 peculiar and characteristic feature is the life line, extending 

 from the beak to the heart, which is represented by a light spot. 

 There are two small, winglike projections back of this spot on 

 each of the birds, which remind one forcibly of the tufts of 

 feathers above the neck membrane of the pinnated grouse. A 

 similar mythical design is etched upon an Eskimo harpoon rest 

 carved in ivory, illustrated on Plate LXXII of the National 

 Museum Report for 1895. In this drawing the bird is twice 

 represented hovering over the whale, and twice with the whale 



There are doubtless many valuable and rare ethnological 

 objects still in the families of the old whalers in the eastern 

 and middle states. These should be deposited for safe keeping 

 in museums of standing, where they would be preserved for all 

 time, and be accessible to students. Otherwise their destruc- 

 tion or loss is inevitable. 



