No. 1616. A STUDY OF ALASKAN NEEDLECASES—BOAS. 327 
(Plate XXV, fig. 6), which, on account of its rarity, may be consid- 
ered as a degenerate form of the alternate-spur band. 
A group of needlecases similar to the one just described from 
Southampton Island has been found in the district between South- 
ampton Island and Smith Sound. The only 
type of needlecase known from Smith Sound 
has this pecular character. Unfortunately 
the specimens which I have seen are all ex- 
ceedingly rough; but they all consist of a flat- 
tened tube, very wide at the upper end, and 
small and round at the lower end, provided at 
the sides with two characteristic wings (fig. 7). 
The same type with some dot decorations has 
been collected at Ponds 
Bay in the northern part 
of Baffin Land (fig. 5, ¢), 
while the older speci- 
mens from the northern 
part of Hudson Bay are 
much more elongated, . 
and have the wings and D 
flanges SU Ou MOLE Fig. 6.—NEEDLECASES, (a, 
clearly ibeomn Woe joodhy  Pedscoe Nik Aviine: 
e ARCH., CAMBRIDGE, NO. 
of the needlecase (fig. 50264; b, RoYAL ETHNOG. 
D5 d, é). Mus., BERLIN, No. IV, A 
3988). 
It seems to me very 
plausible that the Alaskan type and the 
Kastern type represent specialized develop- 
ments of the same older type of needlecase, 
and that the flanges and diminutive knobs of 
the Alaskan specimens are homologous to the 
flanges and large wings of the Eastern speci- 
mens. When the first specimens of this kind 
were collected, Prof. O. T. Mason, according 
to information which he has kindly given to 
me, was inclined to believe that they were 
Fie. 7.—Neepizcasr. Smirx Of foreign origin. In a note on the specimen 
ene Se shown on Plate XXV, fig. 2, he wrote at that 
BER, THE Eskimo or Smith time: 
SoUND (BULL. AMER. Mus. 
NAT. HIst., XII, P. 287). This specimen is a needlecase from St. Michael, 
Alaska. It is made of walrus ivory and carved in 
a form which suggests the butt end of an arrow, with two feathers projecting 
from opposite sides on the shaft. The likeness is made more striking by the 
fluting on the butt end, which resembles the nock of the arrow. A little in 
front of the two feathers are projecting bosses. The tube of the needlecase 
is slightly expanded in the middle and contracted at the smaller end. The 
