1034 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



the lamp will smoke, and it must be kept in order by means of a trim- 

 mer, wliicli is a small piece of bone, stone, or wood. The trimmer 

 dipped in oil forms a torch on occasion.' 



Dr. Bessels says that the wick is ignited at one end and the flame 

 skillfully guided with the trimmer across the whole length of the edge. 

 If the quickly charring wick extends too far into the flame, too much 

 heat is taken away from it and it burns with a deep, red light and its 

 external edge is not hot enough to consume the carbon particles which 

 spread themselves as sooty clouds in the hut.^ 



Lamp trimming only reaches perfection in the old women of the tribe, 

 who can prepare a lamp so that it will give a good, steady flame for 

 several hours, while usually half an hour is the best that can be 

 expected.' In an Eskimo tradition^ a woman takes down some eagle's 

 feathers from a nail in the wall and stirs up the smoking lamji, so as to 

 make it burn brightly. 



While, as a rule, the Eskimo lamp has a shallow, plain, reservoir, 

 simply for holding oil, there are modifications of the reservoir of con- 

 siderable interest. Some lamps of Cumberland Gulf, of East Green- 

 land, of West Greenland, and Point Barrow have a raised portion or 

 step at the rear of the reservoir; probably blubber to be melted grad- 

 ually is placed upon it. Other lamps have a low ridge just fi^ont of the 

 wick edge and parallel with it. This ridge either breaks down at the 

 extremities, allowing the oil to flow arouiul to the wick, or it is per- 

 forated or divided by deep cuts into two or three sections for the same 

 purpose. The office of this ridge is to regulate the flow of oil to the 

 wick and to prevent any sudden wash of oil carrying away the wick 

 line. It is apparent that the lamps from St. Lawrence Island (see 

 plate 14) could readily be carried about iu the hand if necessary. 



The lamp found by Gen. A. W. Greely in the high north has the 

 ridge. Curiously enough it reappears in St. Lawrence Island, in Bering 

 Strait, and among the Chukchis. A trace of the ridge is found in East 

 Greenland and in Kadiak Island. These permanent ridges may have 

 some connection with the septums fitted in the lamp of Point Barrow. 

 There is no evidence, however, that they have been used as extra wick 

 edges, as in the case of the Barrow lamps. 



The saucer-shaped pottery lamps of the Yukon tundra have no pro- 

 vision for the wick around the edge. Some specimens appear to have 

 been lighted on the edge, and Mr. Nelson assures the writer that this 

 method is followed. 



Most observers have spoken in terms of praise of the excellent light 

 given by the Eskimo lamp. The flame in a well-trimmed lamp is from 



' The name for torch is nanerut, or nanernag. The only other locality where the 

 name is found is on the Mackenzie River, where it is called nenexeron. The nse of 

 the torch is extremely uncommon among the Eskimo. 



"Dr. E. Bessels, Die Aniericanische Nordpol Expedition, Leipsic, 1879, p. 00. 



^F. Schwatka, The Implements of the Igloo, Science, IV, .Tuly 25, 1884, p. 8."). 



^Dr. Henry Rink, Tales and Traditions of the ICskimo, London, 1875, p. 326. 



