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).


EASTERN SIBERIAN TYPE.

The National Museum has no throwing-stick from this region, but
Nordenskjöld figures one in the Voyage of Vega (p. 477, Fig. 5), which