MrKKOCII.] 



IVORY DIPPERS. 



103 



horn dipper. The rounded gap in the brim opposite the handle is an 

 accidental break. Another, No. 81)830 [125!)], from Sidarn, is a long 

 trough-like cup, with rounded ends and a short H:tt handle at one end, 

 made of a short transverse section of a rather small tusk, keeping the 

 natural roundness of the tusk, but cut off flat on top and excavated. A 

 wooden peg, like those in the horn dippers, is inserted in the end of 

 the handle. This cup is especially interesting from its resemblance to 

 the one obtained by Beechey (Voyage, PI. I, Fig. 4) at Eschscholtz 



Flo. 40 Dipper of fossil ivory. 



Bay, from which it differs only in being about 2 inches shorter and 

 deeper in proportion. Thomas Simpson speaks of obtaining an ivory 

 cup from some Point Barrow natives at Dease Inlet exactly like the one 

 figured by Beechey, but with the handle broken off. 1 Fig. 41, No. 80833 

 [933], from Xtiwfik, has a large bowl, nearly circular, with a broad, 

 straight handle and a broad hook. The part of the bowl to which the 

 handle is attached, a semicircular piece 3 inches long and If wide, has 

 been split out with the grain of the tusk, and mended with three 

 stitches, in this case of sinew, in the usual manner. There was an old 

 gap ill the brim opposite to the handle, and the edges of it have been 



FIG. 41. Dipper of fossil ivory. 



freshly and roughly whittled down. The ornamentation of the outside 

 and handle, consisting of narrow incised lines and small circles, each 

 with a dot in the center, is well shown in the figure. These engrav 

 ings were originally colored with red ocher, but are now tilled with 

 dirt and are nearly effaced by wear on the handle. This dipper is not 

 of such fine quality of ivory as the other two. It is not unlikely that 

 all these vessels were made by the natives around Kotzebue Sound, 

 where ivory is plenty, and where Beechey, as quoted above, found one 

 so like one of ours. We were informed by the owner that No. 50535 

 [371] was obtained from the Nuiiatanniiun. 





Narrative, p. 148. 



