1040 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



employed for lighting, warmiug, cooking, melting snow, drjang clothes, 

 and in the arts, thus combining in itself several functions which have 

 been differentiated among civilized peoples. 



That the architecture of the house is related to the use of the lamj). 

 The house is made nonconducting and low in order to utilize the heated 

 air. 



That the lamp is a social factor, peculiarly the sign of the family 

 unit, each head of the family (the woman) having her lamp. 



That the invention of the lamp took place on some seacoast, where 

 fat of aquatic mammals of high fuel value was abundant, rather than 

 in the interior, where the fat of land animals is of low fuel value. 



That the typical form of the lamp arises from an attempt to devise a 

 vessel with a straight wick edge combined with a reservoir giving the 

 vessel an obovate or ellipsoidal shape. 



Finally, from observation of lamps from numerous localities around 

 the Eskimo shore line, it is concluded that lami)S in low latitude, below 

 the circle of illumination, are less specialized than those of higher lati- 

 tudes. For instance, the lamps of southern Alaska have a wick edge 

 of 2 inches, while those of Point Barrow and northern Greenland have 

 a wick edge of from 17 to 36 inches in width. 



It becomes possible, then, to say with some certainty the degree of 

 north latitude to which a lamp ai^pertains, light and temperature being 

 the modifying causes. Driftwood, the fuel supply, and the presence or 

 absence of material from which to construct the lamp must also be 

 considered. The cause of the large lamp coming down so far in lati- 

 tude on the east is on account of the dipping of the isotherms. The 

 lamps of Labrador are the case in point. 



DISTRIBUTION AND FORMS OF THE ESKIMO LAMP. 



There are three kinds of Eskimo lamps with regard to use. They 

 may be called the house lamp, the traveler's or summer lamp, and the 

 mortuary lamp, the latter frequently being models. Lamps for melting 

 snow may also be mentioned. 



The summer lamp is based on a number of specimens which are too 

 large for models or toys, but are of convenient size for carrying on the 

 person. They usually bear marks of use as a lamj). Capt. J. O. Spicer, 

 of Groton, Connecticut, has presented a fine exami)le of this kind of 

 lamp to the United States National Museum, and describes its use in 

 the summer when the large house lamp is not necessary and the small 

 lamp supplies light for the pipe. Travelers often carry such lamp for 

 use on journeys. 



The larger regions embracing the localities from whence the lamps 

 come which are described in this monograph are Labrador, Cumber- 

 land Gulf, Greenland, Mackenzie Eiver, Point Barrow, Kotzebue Sound, 

 St. Lawrence Island, Eastern Siberia, Norton Sound, the Yukon Delta 



