326 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vou. xxxwv. 
large number of peculiar analogies between the northeast coast of the 
Pacific Ocean and the islands northeast of Australia. 
Considering the continuous area in which the two designs occur, we 
may say that their essential home seems to be the Eskimo region, be- 
ginning with Alaska, and extending eastward and northeastward to 
Hudson Bay and Smith Sound, and that a few of the neighboring 
Indian tribes may have adopted them, and that they also occur among 
the neighboring Chukchee and Koryak. 
One needlecase that has been found in the region of Southampton 
| Island seems to me of par- 
ticular importance in this con- 
nection (fig. 5, @). It will be 
seen that this needlecase also 
consists of a tube, like most 
Kskimo needlecases; that it 
expands imto wide flanges 
hear its upper end, the whole 
tube being flattened; and that 
near the middle there are two 
large wings, which correspond 
in their position to the small 
knobs of the Alaskan needle- 
cases. This specimen has also 
the characteristic alternate- 
spur band of the Alaskan 
needlecases at its upper end, 
and the decoration 1s repeated 
here in two parallel lines. 
Attention may be called to 
the occurrence of the same 
pattern at the same place in a 
FIG. 5, NEEDLECASES. number of the more complex 
(PONDS BAY) AND f (AIVILIK) (AMER Mus. NAT. 0° 
Hist, Nos. ¢$2%, <2%r, 232m, x89r, x32y, xf@x). From Specimens irom Alaska, shown 
Boas, ESKIMO OF BAFFIN LAND AND HupsoN BAY on Plate XXIV, figs. Dy Be, 2 
(BULL. AMER. Mus. Nat. HIST., XV, iu Plate LOY, figs. LS, ue 9; 
Plate XXVI, fig. 4. These and other similar occurrences show 
that the Eskimo often substituted this design for the single parallel 
lines. 
The alternate-spur-band design is related to the single spurred 
line, a pattern which is very common in many parts of the world. 
In the decorative art of the Eskimo it appears often in place of the 
alternate-spur band; for instance, on some needlecases of the type 
here discussed (see fig. 6; also Plate X XIJ, fig. 1; Plate X XV, fig. 4). 
In other cases the alternate-spur band is replaced by a ladder design 
