1888.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 181 



AN ESKIMO STRIKE-A-LIGHT FROM CAPE BATHURST. 



BY WALTER HOUGH. 



The natives of the Straits of Magellan and the Eskimo of Cape Bath- 

 urst are among the very few races that procure fire by means of flint, 

 pyrites, and tinder. The use of the fire-drill is almost universal ; it is so 

 with the flint and steel; but rare are the instances of the more primi- 

 tive invention, the pyrites, or fire-stone, instead of the steel. 



Capt. E. P. Herendeen collected at Cape Bathurst, north latitude 

 70° 40', longitude 127° 30', a very rarely-visited locality and the limits 

 of the western Eskimo, a nice lot of fur clothing. In the consignment 

 was an Eskimo fire-bag, that is, a pouch containing the implements 

 necessary to get a spark to light a pipe or a fire. The essential parts 



FIG. 1. Tinder pocket. 



1 



Fig. 2. Fire bag. 



are a piece of pyrites, a piece of flint, and tinder. The latter is made of 

 the seed-down of an arctic plant, or frequently of willow catkins. It is 

 prepared by carefully picking it and then soaking it in a strong solution 

 of gunpowder in water to make it "quick," though this procedure is an 

 innovation. The natives on the Putnam or Kuwiik River, in the region 

 explored lately by Lieut. George M. Stoney, U. S. Navy, mix powdered 

 charcoal with their willow catkin tinder, as do the natives at Point 



