XII.] 



ICE MATTOCKS. 



491 



almost resemble chamois leather. Sometimes too the reindeer 

 skin is tanned to real chamois of very excellent quality. 



Two sorts of ice onaitocks ; the shaft is of wood, the blade of 

 the spade-formed one of whalebone, of the others of a walrus 

 tusk ; it is fixed to the shaft by skin thongs with great skill. 

 Sometimes both the shaft and blade are of bone, fastened 

 together in a somewhat different way. 



Holies of native clay-slate. These are often perforated at one 

 end and carried along with the knife, the spoon, and the sucking- 

 tube, fastened with an ivory tongs in the belt. 



ICE MATTOCKS. 



• One-nintK of the natural size. 



Home-made vessels of wood, hone of the whale, U^halelione, and 

 skm of different kinds. 



Knives, boring tools, axes and pots of European, American, or 

 Siberian origin, and in addition casks, jDieces of cable, iron 

 scrap, preserved-meat tins, glasses, bottles, &c., obtained from 

 ships which have anchored along the coast. Vessels have 

 regularly visited the sea north of Behring's Straits only during 

 the latest decades, and the contact between the sailors and the 

 Chukches has not yet exerted any considerable influence on the 



