Household Utensils. 



Of lamps, the collection contains two perfectly preserved spec- 

 imens (PI. XXIV, 1 — 2) of uniform shape, heavy, broad, with rounded 

 fore edge and evenly curved in section, with no sharp edges. PI. XXIV, 1 

 (L. 3765), from house 406 at Snenæs, is 24-5 x 155 cm. The other, 

 larger specimen (L. 3646), from the winter houses on the east shore 

 of Stormbugt, measures 30 x 20. 



The same proportion between breadth and length, about 2:3, is 

 seen in a lamp found by the Nathorst Expedition;^ a similar, still 

 clumsier form is also found in a specimen preserved in the Christi- 

 ania Museum, from a settlement in a fjord about 74° 20'. ^ The spec- 

 imen from the Ryder Expedition, on the other hand, which was found 

 farther south, at Scoresby Sound, is of a more slender type, 43 x 

 21 cm., with no rim at the fore edge. The broad, rounded form 

 which distinguishes lamps XXIV, 1 — 2 is found again in one brought 

 home by Hayes from Smith Sound, ^ and the same type, although 

 in a lower and flatter form, is still in use among the tribe, ^ though 

 another sort, slender and sharper edged, is now more common. "^ 



I do not propose, however, here to make any attempt at tracing 

 connection with other regions on the basis of diff'erent lamp types; 

 this would doubtless prove misleading. The shape of a lamp is with- 

 out doubt largely dependent upon the material available, and the 

 tools with which it is fashioned. To Porsild belongs the honour 

 of having, in his studies on the material culture of the Eskimo in 

 West Greenland,^ taken the technical features as the foundation of 

 his investigations; this is evidently a factor which should not be 

 overlooked, yet which hitherto has frequently been neglected. A 

 thorough study of the technical methods now in vogue among the 

 Eskimos of Greenland in different spheres of work is a gratifying 



1 Stolpe, PI. Ill, Fig. 10. " Mus. No. 10040. » Hough, PI. 5, 2. * A lamp 



in the National Museum (L. 4237), brought home in 1909, measures 57x35 cm. 

 * Hough, PI. 6, 2. A specimen of this type in the National Museum (L. 4238) mea- 

 sures 50 X 23-5 cm. ^ Porsild II. 



