76 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [YoL. VI. 



and spoon therein represented will show that our Western Denes' handi- 

 work is of a very poor grade indeed compared with that of the elabor- 

 ately carved Haida, Tsimsian or Tlingit spoons. The only attempt at 



Fig. 63. % size. 



design or ornamentation of any kind appears in the Tse'kehne spoon or 

 ladle (fig. 6-^). Genuine Carrier uten.sils of this class, which are either of 

 wood or of horn, are even plainer than those above illustrated. Evi- 

 dently our Denes have no eye for the beautiful. In all cases of horn 

 spoons the material is mountain sheep horn. 



The manufacture of such household implements necessitates the pos- 

 session of no extraordinary amount of skill. After the horn has been 

 split in two equal halves, a spherical, smooth-surfaced stone is heated, 

 and to expand the too contracted sides of the horn they are applied 

 thereon and gently pressed out, a layer of pitch having previously been 

 spread over the stone so as to give consistency to the material of the 

 spoon and prevent its artificially distended parts from returning, when 

 cooled, to their original shape. The finishing touches are then given 

 with the carving knife. 



Keeping within the same class of industrial bone implements, we come 

 on the bark peelers * and the cambium scrapers.-f- Both of these are 

 in great demand every recurring spring for the purpose of extracting for 

 food the cambium layer of the shrub pine {Pinus contortd). Their name 

 sufficiently describes their use. Below is the Carrier type of both 

 peeler and scraper, which, it should be remarked, are oftentimes much 

 larger than those after which fig. 64 has been drawn. In fig. 65 we have 

 a double-edged scraper, which, though known among and sometimes used 

 by the Carriers, is more frequently seen among the Tse'kehne. The 

 various styles of these useful implements are all of cariboo horn. The 



* Enifq3i, " it penetrates by tearing," a verbal noun. 

 \ Eltzo, " that which scrapes," verb. noun. 



