BONE AND HORN.

COMBS.

The comb here illustrated is the gift of the Rev. C. E Whittaker, a missionary on Herschel Island, off the mouth of the Mackenzie River, Arctic Ocean.

In that region the Eskimo and Indians (Louchoux) are neighbors, so that it is only reasonable to look for action and reaction between the two peoples with respect to many of their manners and customs, and, perhaps, more especially, in the matter of handiwork, notwithstanding that, on the authority of Bishop Stringer as well as of the Rev. Mr. Whittaker, the peoples are not always on the best of terms.

It is sometimes doubtful whether marginal notches, on specimens of this kind, have been made for ornamental or for numeral purpose; but the regularity of the markings on figure 14 leaves no room for doubt that decoration was intended in this case.

There is not a single mark on the specimen in question to indicate the use of any metallic tool.

In the controversy about smoking pipes, the specimen here, figure 15, (25,503), would appear to lend some countenance to the notion, that the first pipes were straight. But the slight curve shown on this pipe, if it was a pipe, was simply

the natural bend of the antler from which it is made. Although hollowed from end to end, there is no appearance of toolwork on the material, except that the tip has been cut off somewhat squarely, and that just

beyond this there are some marks which may have been made by teeth pressure, or by some blunt instrument.

Fig. 16 (27,099) entered in our catalogue as a "hide-scraper," was presented by Mr. E. R. Steinbrueck, of Mandan, Dak. It is of a type quite unknown in Canada, so far, but something of the kind may turn up here at any time. In all probability this shoulder-blade tool is made from the bone of a buffalo, but similar bones of the moose, and other large animals may have been used similarly. A tool of this size, seven inches long, might have been used as a spade, or as a hoe, and scratches on the surface of this specimen certainly indicate its employment in some other way than that of a "hide-scraper."

1906

29

In the cultivation of maize, on light soil, an implement of this kind, with or without any kind of handle, might have been used effectively.

Fig. 17 (27,816) shows the appearance of the hollow side of what is called a "gorget," made from the outer coil or body-whorl of busycon perversum or other large shell. Up to the present time we have found only one or two shell specimens, the surfaces of which are marked by any incised-line pattern or design such as not infrequently appear in more southerly districts.

In 1899 we procured through Mr. J. S. Heath (p. 25, Ann. Arch. Rep. 1899), half of a shell gorget, on the convex side of which is engraved part of the conventionalized rattlesnake so often found on the concave sides of such objects, perhaps most notably so in Tennessee. The most deeply shaded portions in the illustration show where plainly enough, the gorget has come into contact with iron, and this will be easily under

stood when it is mentioned that there were also found in the mound all that was left of a steel knife and a pair of scissors-European,

Fig. 18. (27,821.)

Fig. 20.

Full size.

Fig. 19. (27,828.)

as a matter of course,--and a clear proof that mound-building was carried on until a comparatively recent date in Ontario,* for the metallic relics were taken from the deepest part of the mound, and therefore the less likely to be regarded as "intrusive."

BEADS.

Beads of this kind when turned up by the plough are usually regarded as being of bone, sometimes as of "petrified bone," and occasionally, as of "bone petrified into stone." Appearances suggest bone, and there are many more bone beads found of this shape than there are of shell or of stone, and as comparatively few of us have ever seen shells large enough to supply material for such beads, it has come about that all beads of long, cylindrical shape are "bone beads." Ferhaps, too, the hole is suggestive of birds' wing-bones, for the difficulty of boring such small holes naturally occurs to everybody. However, as the beads are made from the tubular, columella, or central pillar, or column, around which all the rest of a univalve grows spirally, the hole in the bead, is, therefore, not a work of mechanical art at all.

The shells used in work of this kind were not native to Ontario, or even to

* See Ann. Arch. Rep. for 1905, p. 155.

Canada, but were procured from the Coast of Florida, probably in exchange for native copper, huronian slate, furs, or other material found in our own country.

The largest beads seem to have been made from the columella of the genera Busycon and Strombus, while those of smaller size, from half an inch in length were from Fulgur carica, and others of even smaller dimensions.

Fig. 21 is of the commoner runtee type of which we have a good many specimens from Flos township, Simcoe county, and from Brantford township. Brant county.

This specimen differs from the others in being considerably larger.

A few of these were found along with six skulls, and a few miscellaneous specimens as elsewhere referred to, in the Port Colborne Mound, last year.

Fig. 21 shows one of the more common kind, found at the same place-in it the hole is bored from end to end.

Fig. 21. Full size. The shell beads represented by figs. 21 and 22 are of the kind sometimes called runtee, that is to say, the holes are bored not through them from side to side, but lengthwise, fig. 21, or, as in

fig. 22 (27,824), half way through one side near an end to meet another short hole bored lengthwise from the middle of the end. It will be remembered that it is in this way holes are bored through the bases of what we call bar and "bird amulets." Shell-beads bored in this way are not by any means common, if we may judge from the fact that the specimen figured here is the only one that has come into our possession since the Ontario archæological collection was begun, twenty-one years ago.