44 



PROCEEDINGS OP THE NATIONAL. MUSEUM 



VOL. 73 



"j^^Wl 



FIG. 31.— Lower piece of fire-making 

 SET (hearth). Cat. No. 39601, 

 U.S.N.M. Eskimo OF Cape Vancou- 

 ver, Alaska. Collected by E. W. 

 Nelson 



Cape Vancouver is represented by a 

 fine old hearth. This object has evidently 

 been prized by its owner; it has had two 

 rows of fire holes (fig. 31), one row bored 

 on the step in front of the first holes made ; 

 some of the holes are bored clear through. 

 The reason why this was valued is because 

 the wood is so tindery that it is easy to 

 make fire upon it. 



Chalitmute, in the Kuskokwim region, 

 on the northern side of the bay of that 

 name, opposite Nunivak Island, is the next 

 locality southward to be considered. The 

 parts of this set are exceptionally well fin- 

 ished. The hearth (fig. 32) is stepped. It 

 has four holes prepared for use ; on one, fire 

 has been made. The drill is unusually 

 thick. The mouthpiece has no teeth grip, 

 and there is no evidence that it was ever 

 held in the mouth. It is intended to be 

 held in the hand. This mouthpiece is set 

 with an oval socket stone of black obsid- 

 ian, ground down into facets and polished. 

 The cord handles are fine, large teeth of 

 the sea lion. The centers of the circles so 

 characteristic of Eskimo art are inlaid 

 with wood. The holes for the drill cord 

 are narrow; they must have been dug 

 through with a sharp, narrow instrument. 

 As before remarked, this is the region 

 where the hand rest is more used than the 

 mouthpiece, and the bow is not used at all. 



The fire-making set from the Togiak 

 River was collected in 1886 by Sergt. I. 

 Applegate, of the United States Signal 

 Corps, Kassianamute, from which village 

 it comes, is in the Bristol Bay region, but 

 this set has a different appearance from 

 the former outfits. (Fig. 33.) The hearth 

 is a block of wood worked out at one end 

 into a handle. It is remarkable in having 

 central holes not connecting, and with no 

 connecting grooves. In this it closely 

 resembles the block from east Greenland. 

 (Fig 23.) This hearth is of soft, tindery 

 wood, and doubtless when the holes be- 

 came too deep to allow the powder to mass 



