MURDOCH.] LAMPS. 107 



luncheon of porridge or something of the sort, is now cooked over tlics: 1 

 lamps. Two such lamps burning at the ordinary rate give light enong i 

 to enable one to read and write with ease when sitting on the ban 

 quette, and easily keep the temperature between 50 and 00 V. in the 

 coldest weather. In the collection are three house lamps, two complete 

 and one merely a fragment, and three traveling lamps. 



Pig. 47 (Xo. 8987!)) [872] is a typical house, lamp, though rather a 

 small specimen. It is carved out of soft gray soapstone and is 17 inches 

 long. The back is nearly vertical, while the front flares strongly out 

 ward. The back wall is cut down vertically inside with a narrow 

 rounded brim and the front curves gradually in from the, very edge to 

 the bottom of the cavity, which is H inches deep in the middle. The 

 posterior third of the cavity is occupied by a flat, straight shelf with a 

 sloping edge about 0-7 inch high. About a third of one end of the lam]) 



FlG. 48. Sandstone lamp. 



has been broken off obliquely and mended, as usual, with stitches. 

 There are two of these neatly countersunk in channels. The, specimen 

 has been long in use and is thoroughly incrusted with oil and soot. Xo. 

 89880 [1731] (Fig. 48) is peculiar, from the material of which it is made. 

 This is a coarse, gritty stone, rather soft, but much more diflicult to work 

 than the soapstone. It is rudely worked into something the same shape 

 as the type, but has the cavity but slightly hollowed out, without a shelf, 

 and only a little, steeper behind than in front. The idea at once sug 

 gests itself that, this lain]), which is very old and sooty, was made at 

 Point Harrow and was an attempt to imitate the, imported lamps with 

 stone obtained from the beds reported by Lieut, liay in Ivulugrua. 

 There is, of course, no means of proving this supposition. There, is 

 no mention of any material except soapstone being made into lamps 

 by the Greenlanders or other eastern Eskimo, but the lamps from 

 Kadiak and Bristol Hay in the Xational Museum are made of some hard 

 gray stone. 



Fig. 49, No. 501)73 [133], is a traveling lamp, and is a miniature of the 

 large, lam]), Xo. 89879 [872], 8-7 inches long, 4-2 wide, and 1 inch high, also 

 of soapstone and without a shelf. The front also is straighter, and the 

 whole more roughly made. Xo. 89882 [ 1298] is another traveling lamp, 

 also of soapstone, and made of about halt of a large lamp. It has been 



