MURDOCH.] STONE POTS. 91 



iii both pots are holes showing where they have been mended by whale 

 bone stitches, fragments of which are still sticking in one pot. This 

 method of mending soapstone vessels by sewing is mentioned by Capt. 

 Parry as practiced at Iglulik. 1 



No. 89883 [1097] (Fig. 21) is a small pot of a quite different shape, 

 best understood from the figure. Ilomul the edge are eight holes for 

 strings nearly equidistant. The outside is rough, especially on the 

 bottom. One of the sides is much gapped, and the acute tip has been 

 broken off obliquely and mended with a stitch of whalebone. The care 

 used in mending these vessels shows that they were valuable and not 

 easily replaced. 1 can 



find no previous mention ^/ 



of the use of stone ves 

 sels for cooking on the 

 western coast, and there 

 are no specimens in the 

 National Museum collec 

 tions. The only Eskimo 

 stone vessels are a couple 

 of small stone bowls from 

 Bristol Bay. These are 



FIG. 21. Small stone pot. 



rery much the shape of 



the wooden bowls above described, and appear to have been used as oil 

 dishes and not for cooking, as the inside is crusted with grease, while the 

 outside is not blackened. On the other hand, stone cooking pots are 

 very generally employed even now by the eastern Eskimos, and have 

 been frequently described. 2 The close resemblance of the pots from 

 Point Barrow to those described by Capt. Parry, taken in connection 

 with Dr. Simpson s statement 3 that the stone lamps were brought from 

 the east, renders it very probable that the kettles were obtained in the 

 same way. The absence of this utensil among the southern Eskimo of 

 Alaska is probably due to the fact that being inhabitants of a well 

 wooded district they would have no need of contrivances for cooking 

 over a lamp. 



I obtained thfee fragments of pottery, which had every appearance 

 of great age and were said to be pieces of a kind of cooking-pot which 

 they used to make &quot;long ago, when there were no iron kettles.&quot; The 

 material was said to be earth (nu na), bear s blood, and feathers, 4 

 and appears to have been baked. They are irregular fragments (No. 



2d Voyage, p. 502. 



*I need only refer to Craiitz, who describes the &quot;bastard-marble kettle,&quot; hanging &quot;by four strings 

 fastened to the roof, which kettle is a foot long and half a foot broad, and shajH- d like a longish box&quot; 

 (vol. 1, p. 140) ; the passage from Parry s 2d Voyage, referred to above; Kumlien, op. cit., p. 20 (Cum 

 berland Gulf); Boas, &quot;Central Eskimo,&quot; p. 545; and Gilder, Schwatka s Search, p. 260 (West Shore 

 of Hudson Bay). 



Op. cit., pp. 267-269. 



4 Compare the cement for joining pieces of soapstone vessels mentioned by Boas {&quot;Central Eskimo,&quot; 

 p. 526) consisting of &quot;seal s blood, a kind of clay, and dog s hair.&quot; 



