Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/461
have holes for the lashing. In view of what we have observed at Port Harrison it is worthy of note that all the slate objects from the Belcher Islands are ground, most often over the whole surface.
Pl. 77.16 is an arrow head with slightly concave base, of black silicious slate; three others are of similar material, size and shape. 17 is a small, triangular flint arrow head; two others are exactly like it. Of soapstone there is only one indeterminable fragment.
Pl. 77.13 is a barb for a salmon spear of the characteristic form of the Thule finds with projecting neck, but smaller than these usually are. Another, which is also in the collection, has apparently belonged to the same spear. A small, slender snow knife consists of a handle of wood, 12 cm long, 3.6 cm wide, with two shoulders and bilateral knob on the handle end; at the fore end a cut with two holes, in which the rear, wedge-shaped end of the blade fits; the blade is of ivory, 19 cm long and 2.3 cm wide, very curved and decayed; in the rear end are 4 holes and grooves for the lashing. 12 is a miniature specimen of the "winged" needle case. 10–11 are ornament plates of ivory, finely ornamented on the rounded side. The principal motif is the familiar Y-figure. On 10 these figures are separated, whereas on 11 they are joined together into borders along the edge and parallel to it; only in the middle are there a few disconnected Y-figures; on a third plate, not figured, of the same shape, 7.5 cm long, there are only the two borders of continuous Y-figures. The smallest of these specimens has holes in both ends; on the others the ends are defective. There is furthermore a fairly thick, broken point of ivory with a central hole, sharp edges and ornamented with oblique lines which run out to the sides from a middle line. All the bone objects look very old.
Finally there are in the collection two pieces of thin sheet brass; one is a thin piece of band, the other a pendant or the like, divided at the bottom; both have a suspension hole.
Thus the find from Belcher Islands contains a number of the types characteristic of the Thule culture: the side prong for a salmon spear, snow knife with two shoulders, the winged needle case and the Y-ornament; the slate technique is also related to the Ponds Inlet finds, even if it has assumed a local stamp.
Although from these small, casually gathered collections of specimens one cannot deduce any total impression of the culture conditions in these regions in olden times, they bear witness of the fact that a branch of the Thule culture has also reached down to the east coast of Hudson Bay; it is especially interesting that all the bone specimens from the small, isolated Belcher Islands show such close relationship to this old culture.