The Material Culture of the Eskimo in West Greenland. 245 



which exists from a single district — belonging со Mr. Thron, the manager 

 of Holstensborg. It contains at the present time about 150 specimens, the 

 majority of which have been in use until now; but there are also many 

 very ancient specimens from the ruins of houses and from graves ; for in- 

 stance, one is from a grave which, on account of the secular sinking 

 af the coast, was almost washed away. All possible sizes occur, 

 ranging from over 40 cm. in length down to little girls' lamps, or to quite 

 tiny dolls' lamps, only about 3 — 4 cm. in length. In the whole collection 

 no two identical forms occur. Taking Hough's typical outlines as a starting 

 point, this great wealth of forms may be grouped around the following 

 "types." 



The forms most frequently met with are similar to Hough's Nos. 2 

 (Cumberland Gulf), 3 (Smith Sound) and 4 (Repulse Bay) ; then come the 

 elliptical ones with flat reservoir such as Hough No. 6 (East Greenland) and 

 semicircular such as Hough No. 9 (Kotzebue Sound). Moreover, trapezoid 

 lamps with rounded angles occur frequently, of which there are no corres- 

 ponding forms in Hough's outlines : others are circular such as Hough No. 

 12 (Bristol Bay) or slightly oblong such as Hough No. 14 (Aleutian Islands), 

 the two latter types with deeply hollowed reservoir. Then there are types 

 with ridges, similar to the one I have figured, and a great many rarer types, 

 each of which is represented by only one or a few specimens, e. g. rectan- 

 gular with elHptical reservoir, ditto with edge for the wick on the narrow 

 side, elhptical or pear-shaped with edge for the wick on the narrow side, 

 this form recalling that of Hough No. 13 (Kadiak). 



Among the dolls' lamps there are three types which are of interest in 

 so far as, owing to their small size, want of material has scarcely played 

 any rôle. Here the maker has consequently been able to fashion the lamp 

 as he liked. Here the most frequent forms are like Hough's Nos. 2 — 4 

 and 6, then comes No. 7, not because the ledge is of the least practi- 

 cal importance in such small lamps, but because the form with the ledge 

 (qutdleq oqalik) is regarded as being the most correct one. Lastly, among 

 the dolls' lamps of most recent date there frequently occurs a form which 

 consists of a rectangular, rather high block, in which a reservoir is made. 

 The fact being that it requires nothing special to stand on. 



Moreover, the collection shows interesting examples of repairs, and of 

 lamps made as a make-shift. For instance, there was a broken-ofi piece 

 of a huge lamp of Hough's type No. 4, which the finder had provided with 

 a square depression, and in this condition it served as a lamp when Mr. 

 Thron acquired it. In another case, where the soapstone lamp was broken 

 beyond repair, the wick was placed in the clumsy three-legged wooden cup, 

 which had originally been intended to catch up the waste oil, and was used 

 as a lamp until one side of it was entirely burnt down. These two examples 

 show better than many words how few are the claims made by such lamps. 



Several specimens showed distinctly the method, employed in making 

 them. As might be expected, the reservoir is first hollowed out, and then 

 the outer part is formed. In many the latter part had not yet been executed, 

 although the lamp had been in use for a fairly long time. Regarding this 

 point Mr. Thron had obtained the interesting information that in such cases 

 the maker had died before the work was finished. Then nobody else would 

 finish the work ; but the lamp could very well be used. In the majority 

 of the flat lamps the bottom of the reservoir sloped towards the edge with 

 the wick, and, often, also obhquely towards one side ; but in a good many 

 specimens it sloped away from the edge with the wick. 



In some cases Mr. Thron had been able to get information regarding 



