60 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 



VOL. 73 



apparently an oxide of iron [pyrites or iron ore ?]. They were struck 

 together after the true tinder-box fashion, throwing a scanty supply 

 of sparks on a tinder composed of the silky down of the willow cat- 

 kins {Salix lanata) which he held on a lump of dried moss.^^ 



Very much farther west on Melville Peninsula Parry gives a com- 

 plete and interesting description of the primitive way. This account 

 gives us a link between the western and eastern Eskimo. He writes : 



For the purpose of obtaining fire the Eskimo use two lumps of common 

 pyrites, from which sparks are struck into a little leathern case (see fig. 25, pi. 

 LXXIV) containing moss well dried and rubbed between the hands. If this tinder 



does not readily catch, a small quantity of 

 the white floss of the seed of the ground 

 willow is laid above the moss. As soon 

 as a spark has caught it is gently blown till 

 the fire has spread an inch around, when 

 the pointed end of a piece of wick being 

 applied, it soon bursts into a flame, the 

 whole process having occupied perhaps two 

 or three minutes.*^ 



The Museum was in possession of 

 a specimen catalogued, "Moss bag 

 and lumps of pyrites used by Innuit 

 for getting fire," collected by Capt. 

 C. F. Hall at Pelly Bay, in latitude 

 69°, longitude 90°, several degrees 

 west of Melville Peninsula. 



The only other record of the process 

 under consideration among the Es- 

 kimo is found in the Aleutian Islands. 

 There is absolutely no evidence had 

 by the writer that the Eskimo south 

 of Kotzebue Sound (western Eskimo) 

 use the pyrites and flint for making fire. The latest information 

 about the Aleutian Islanders is given in a manuscript of the careful 

 explorer, Lucien M. Turner. His observation will serve to explain 

 the description of striking a light by earlier travelers. 



They use the four part drill but they also use pyrites. A stone containing 

 quartz and pyrites is struck against another similar one, or a beach pebble, into 

 a mass of sea-bird down sprinkled with powdered sulphur. This ignites and is 

 quickly caught on finely shredded blades of grass or beaten stalks of wild par- 

 snips. This method prevails to this day on the islands west of Unalashka. 



The people told Mr. Turner that this was the ancient way. There 

 is a doubt in the writer's mind that Sauer's (Billing's Expedition, 

 p. 59), and Campbell's (Voyage, p. 59,) observations, brought 



" Arctic Explorations, vol. 1, p. 379. 

 »• Second Voyage, p. 504. London, 1824. 



Fig. 43. — Method o 

 steike-a-light. cat. 

 U.S.N.M. Drawing 

 Burger 



USING THE 

 No. 128405, 

 BY W. H. 



