ESKIMO ETHNOLOGICAL MATERIAL 



*95 



Fishhooks. A combined fishhook, sinker, and bait, No. 1 1,009, 

 was obtained from the Anderson River Eskimos. It is of wal- 

 rus ivory, 4 inches long by .7 inch broad, and resembles a small 

 fish in shape; the hook is a sharpened nail without a barb. It 

 is weighted with five plugs on the side and a forked bar of 

 lead upon the back; two small blue beads serve as eyes. They 

 now obtain fishhooks from the whalers which they use in both 

 coast and river fishing. 



Net Sinkers. The net sinkers used at Herschel Island were 

 of heavy bone, instead of stone, which is commonly used by 

 all Northern Indians. The collection contains one set, No. 

 10,961, which was made from cylindrical bone, 1.8 inches in 

 diameter, sawed in sections, 6.5 inches long and again in half 

 longitudinally; there is a groove sawed upon the convex side 

 25 of an inch from each end; they are attached to the net by 

 twine passed through a small hole drilled in each end; another 

 form, No. 10,963, is cylindrical, 4.3 inches long, with a large 

 hole through the outer rim at each end. 



Net Floats. These are frequently made of cottonwood bark. 

 Specimen No. 10,960 will serve as a type; it is in the form of a 

 low pyramid with rounded corners; it is 4.3 inches long by 3.2 

 wide; a loop of whalebone is fixed at each end to two holes 

 drilled half an inch apart. 



Netting Needles. These are made of ivory or caribou antler. 

 A specimen from Herschel Island, No. 10,951, is of a poor 

 quality of walrus ivory; it is 8 inches long, 1 inch wide at the 

 base of the prong, and slightly narrower in the handle, which 

 is 3.4 inches long. 



Lamps. The soapstone lamp of native manufacture is being 

 replaced by imported oil stoves in which kerosene is burned 

 instead of whale oil. A few are still in use at Herschel Island, 

 where I measured a house lamp that was 18 inches long. The 

 collection contains one traveling lamp, No. 10,928, of steatite 

 from the same locality. It is 5.3 inches long by 3.2 wide, and is 

 excavated to a depth of .5 of an inch; the wall of the more 

 convex side is nearly vertical and ornamented with an incised 

 line; the opposite side, which bears the wick of moss, slopes 

 inward more gradually. 



Hammer. The collection contains but one, No. 10,841, which 

 was obtained from the Anderson River Eskimos. The handle 



