Implements and Artefacts of the North-east Greenlanders. 445 



landers, where they serve, among other purposes, that of softening 

 boot soles. ^ 



The object shown in PI. XXVI, 5, must doubtless also be regarded 

 as the handle of a scraper. It was found in house 132 on Renskæret, 

 and is formed from the radius bone of a bear. Midway down one 

 edge a groove is cut, 11-5 cm. long, about 1 cm. wide, and over 2 cm. 

 deep, evidently intended for the insertion of a stone blade. The handle 

 itself is 24-5 cm. long, thus leaving room for the hands on either side 

 of the blade. This implement, with stone blade, is used by the Chuk- 

 chees^ and the Eskimos of Bristol Bay, Alaska. ^ 



I myself know of no nearer locality where two-handed scrapers 

 with inserted blade have been found. Gudmund Hatt, in his 

 instructive work on the fur clothing of the Arctic, in some observ- 

 ations on the two-handed scraper in general, states that it is found 

 in Northern Eurasia, from Lapland to Bering Straits, and among 

 many tribes of Indians in North America, but is altogether unknown 

 among the Eskimos^; this last remark, however, can hardly be cor- 

 rect. The implement used by the Eskimo on the west coast of Hudson 

 Bay for cleaning the inner side of skins, and fashioned from the split 

 leg bone of the caribou, must doubtless be regarded as a two-handed 

 scraper.^ And implements more or less similar have previously been 

 brought home from North-east Greenland, without precise statement 

 as to locality. ^ The scrapers shown by Nelson (PI. L, 14 and 16), 

 from the Eskimo of Bering Strait, should, by their form, apparently 

 also have been intended for use with both hands ^, as also Mason's 

 specimen from the Eskimo of Mission, Alaska. ^ Among the Point 

 Barrow Eskimo, on the other hand, the two-handed scraper is, ac- 

 cording to Murdoch, unknown. ^ 



From the whole west coast of Greenland, however, which was 

 discovered far earlier and has been far better investigated, we have 

 in our museum not one specimen of this implement, and from the 

 east coast itself the item from Renskæret is the first of this kind, 

 the locality of which is stated with any certainty. 



1 Steensby III, p. 336, Fig 26. « Bogoras, Fig. 144 a. » Mason III, PI. LXXXVIII, 2. 

 * Hatt, p. 24. ^ Boas III, p. 91, Fig. 132. ^ р^ощ the Amdrup Exped. two 

 specimens, but only the one entire; from Ryder's Exped. 1 spec. ^ Nelson, 



p. 118, cf. p. 116. 8 Mason III, PI. LXXXIV, 3. ^ Murdoch I, p. 298. 



