m RDOC!!.] 



SNOW-GOGGLES. 



261 



eyes, admitting the light by a narrow horizontal slit, which allows, 

 only a small amount of light to reach the eye and at the same time 

 gives sufficient range of vision. Such goggles are universally employed 

 Ijy the Eskimos everywhere 1 except in Siberia, where they use a simple 

 shade for the eyes. 2 



We brought home four pairs of these goggles (i dylgiin), of which No 

 89894- [1708], Fig. 259, represents the common form. These are of pine 

 wood, 5-8 inches long and 1-1 inches broad, and deeply excavated on the 

 inside, with a narrow horizontal slit with thin edges on each side of the 

 middle. In the middle are two notches to fit the nose, the one in the 

 lower edge deep and rounded, the upper very shallow. The two holes 

 in each end are for strings of sinew braid to pass round the head. They 

 are neatly made and the outside is scraped smooth and shows traces of 

 a coat of red ocher. 



The history of this particular pair of goggles is peculiarly interesting. 

 Though differing in no important respect from those used at the present 

 day, they were found on the site 

 of the ancient village of Isu tkwa, 

 where our station stood, buried 

 at a depth of 27 feet in undis 

 turbed frozen ground, and were 

 uncovered in digging the shaft 

 sunk by Lieut. Bay for obtaining 

 earth temperatures. 3 The layer 

 in which they were found was 

 evidently an old sea beach, con 

 sisting of sand and gravel mixed FIG. 259. Wooden snow 

 with broken shells, among which Mya truncata was recognized. The 

 amount of the superincumbent gravel and similar material above this 

 object does not necessarily indicate any very great length of time since 

 they were first buried, as will be readily understood from what 1 have 

 said above (p. 28) about the rapidity with which high hummocks of 

 gravel are pushed up by the ice. The unbroken layer of turf, however, 

 nearly a foot thick, with which the ground was covered at this point, 

 shows that a considerable period must have elapsed since the gravel had 

 reached nearly to its present level. 



The pattern of these goggles is to my mind a very decided proof that 

 at that early date this region was inhabited by Eskimo not essentially 

 different from its present inhabitants. Goggles worn at the present day 

 are almost always of the shape of these, though I remember seeing one 

 pair made in two pieces joined by short strings of beads across the nose. 

 They are, I think, universally painted with red ocher on the outside and 



See Parry, 2d Voyage, p. 547, Iglulik and Hudson Strait. ]&amp;gt;1. opposite p. 548, Fig. 4. anil pi. 

 opposite p. 14; Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. I. p. 234; Ball. Alaska, p. 1(15, figure (Norton Sound); 

 also MaoFarlane, MS., No. 2920 (Anderson Riven. 



\ordeiiskiiild. Vega, vol.2, p. !WI. 



*Ki-port U.S. International Polar K\]M-lition to I oint Harrow, p. 37. 



