1044 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



higher than the wick edge, has been broken away, and tlie specimen shows 

 marks of long usage. The bottom is flat and irregular. From the height of the 

 wick edge the lamp must have required to be strongly tipped toward the front 

 when in use. Length, 12J inches; width G inches; height, 1| inches. Eskimo, 

 Cumberland Gulf, Canada. Collected by Lieut. W. A. Mintzer, U. S. N. 29966. 



Small lamp. Made of soapstone, crescentic in outline, with truncated horns. The 

 reservoir is neatly hollowed out, the rear wall forming a low rim. The lip or 

 wick edge slants rather abruptly to meet the plane of the floor, forming an angle 

 near the front of the lamp (see section) as in the lamps of Labrador. The bot- 

 tom of the lamp is rounded, and has irregular cavities due to foreign substances 

 in the soapstone. This lamp, from its small size, is probably one used by travelers 

 or in summer. It is not balanced, and hence requires a rest or foot. Length, 

 7i inches; width, 4 inches; height, 1^ inches. Eskimo, Cumberland Gulf, Can- 

 ada. Collected by Lieutenant Mintzer, U. S. N. 29967. Plate 3, fig. 4. 



SoAPsTONK POT. Oblong in shape, cut out of soapstone. It is pierced at the cor- 

 ners for suspension. The bottom is flat; the sides incline inward, thus making 

 the opening smaller at the top. This cooking pot in every respect resembles 

 those collected by Mr. L. M. Turner in Labrador. The specimen has been broken 

 and mended with cement and sinew by the natives. Length, 12i inches; width, 

 7 inches; height, SJ inches. Eskimo, Mantilik, Cumberland Gulf, Canada. 

 Collected by Lieut. W. A. Mintzer, U. S. N. 29969. Plate 3, fig. 5. 



Stone pot. Similar in form to No. 29969. The specimen has been mended with 

 whalebone strips. Eskimo, Cumberland Gulf, Canada. Collected by Lieut. W. 

 A. Mintzer, U. S. N. 



THE LAMPS OF GREENLAND. 



The lamps of Greenland are made of soapstone and other harder 

 rocks. They are usually elliptic in outline or having the outline of the 

 gibbous moon. The bottom is nearly always flat or sligiitly curved, 

 as they are placed on stools; sometimes, however, they are set up on 

 pegs. There is little relation in form between the Greenland lamps 

 and those of Labrador or Cumberland Gulf (Baffin Land). The rela- 

 tion is rather between Greenland both east and west and northwestern 

 Alaska. The type of shell-shaped lamps of North Greenland, shown 

 on plate 7, have the same relationship and pass over to Eastern Siberia 

 by way of Saint Lawrence Island. (See plates 4 to 9.) 



The cooking pot has walls inclining outward, in reverse to those of 

 the south. Perhaps the finest specimen of soapstone work of the kind 

 in existence is the cooking pot brought from Smith Sound by Dr. 

 Hayes. (See plate 9, fig. 3.) 



The drying frame of East Greenland is hung over the lamp, as is the 

 frame used in a tent at Inglefield Gulf (Smith Sound). (See plate 9, fig. 

 1.) In other localities the frame is placed on pegs driven in the wall 

 over the bench upon which the lamp is installed. Wick trimmers are 

 often a stick of asbestos or jwiuted piece of soapstone. In East Green- 

 land it is a chisel-shaped jnece of iron mounted in a wooden handle. 

 A number of mortuary lamj)s have been found in South and East 

 Greenland. 



The view of the interior of an Eskimo snow house in Greenland is 

 interesting, as showing the method of setting ui> the all-essential lamj) 



