seen again after we pass Cape Vancouver.  From Ungava to Point Barrow the index-finger hole is eccentric and the finger passes quite through the implement and to the right of the harpoon or spear-shaft.  In the Kotzebue type the index finger cavity is subjacent to the spear-shaft groove, consequently the forefinger would be wounded or at least in the way by passing through the stick.  The spear or harpoon-shaft groove is wide and shallow and passes immediately over the index cavity.  The hook is of ivory and stands up above the wood.  It needs only to be mentioned that this type, as well as those with eccentric forefinger perforations are used with the naked hand.

In the quarto volume of Beechey’s Voyage, page 324, is mentioned a throwing-stick from Eschscholtz Bay, with a hole for the forefinger and a notch for the thumb, the spear being placed in the groove and embraced by the middle finger and the thumb.  This last assertion is very important.  When I first began to examine a large number of the implements, I could not explain the cavities for the finger-tips until this note suggested that the shaft rides outside of and not under the fingers.  To test the matter I had a throwing-stick made to fit my hand, and found that the spear could get no start if clamped close to the throwing-stick by all the fingers; but if allowed to rest on the back of the fingers or a part of them, and it is held fast, by the thumb and middle finger, it had just that small rise which gave it a start from the propelling instrument.

In the national collection is a specimen marked Russian America, collected by Commodore John Rodgers, resembling in many respects the Kotzebue Sound type.  The handle is of the same razor-strop shape, but on the upper side are three deep depressions for the finger-tips.  In several of the objects already described provision is made for the tips of the last three fingers by means of a gutter or slight indentations.  But in no other examples is there such pronounced separation of the fingers.  In very many of the Norton Sound skin-dressers, composed of a stone blade and ivory handle, the fingers are separated in exactly the same manner.  These skin-dressers are from the area just south of Kotzebue Sound.  The back of the Rodgers specimen is ornamented in its lower half by means of grooves.  In its upper half are represented the legs and feet of some animal carved out in a graceful manner.  The index-finger cavity is central and is seen on the upper side by a very slight rectangular perforation, which, however, does not admit the extrusion of any part of the index-finger.  The upper surface is formed by two inclined planes meeting in the center.  Along this central ridge is excavated the groove for the spear-shaft, deep at its lower end and quite running out at its upper extremity.  The hook for the end of the harpoon-shaft in this specimen resembles that seen on the throwing-sticks of the region south of Cape Vancouver.  The whole execution of this specimen is so much superior to that of any other in the Museum and the material so different as to create the suspicion that it was made by a white man, with steel tools (Fig 8).