2!)0 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. 



is made to work against the split surface of a stick of spruce IS inches 

 long, along the middle of which is cut a gash, to give the drill a start. 

 Three equidistant circular pits, charred and blackened, were bored out 

 by the tip of the drill, which developed heat enough to set lire to the 

 sawdust produced. Tinder was probably used to catch and hold the 

 fire. 



Most authors who have treated of the Eskimo have described an 

 instrument of this sort in use either in former times or at the present 

 day. 1 



Among most Eskimo, however, a bow is used to work the drill. The 

 only exceptions to this rule appears to have been the ancient Greenland- 

 ers and the people of Hudson Bay (see the passages from IFakluyt, 

 Crantz, and Kllis, just quoted.) Chamisso, however, 2 speaks of seeing 

 the Aleutians at Unalaska produce fire by means of a stick worked by 

 a string making two turns about the stick and held and drawn with 

 both hands, with the upper end of the stick turning in a piece of wood 

 held in the mouth. When a piece of flr was turned against another piece 

 of the same wood fire was often produced in a few seconds. This passage 

 appears to have escaped the usually keen observation of Mr. W. H. 

 Dall, who, speaking of the ancient Aleutians, says: &quot; The fiddle-bow 

 drill was an instrument largely used in their carving and working bone 

 and ivory; but for obtaining fire but two pieces of quarz were struck 

 together, &quot; etc. 3 



1 liessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 0, p. 867, speaks of a fire drill used at Smith Sound with a bow and 

 a mouthpiece of ivory. 



. 

 A Greonlander; seen by John Davis, in 1586, beganne to kindle a fire, in his manner: he took 



, 

 continued Motion the Fir catches Fire.&quot; Egedo, Greenland, p. i:(7. 



&quot;If their tire goes out, they can kindle it again by turning round a stick very quick with a string 

 through a hole in a piece of wood.&quot; Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. 1, ]&amp;gt;. 145. 



Lyon (Journal, p. 210) says that at Tglulik they were ablo to procure &quot; tire by the friction of a pin of 

 wood in the hole of another piece and pressed down like a drill from above.&quot; This was worked with a 

 bow and willow catkins were used for tinder. A man informed them that &quot;he had learned it from his 

 father rather for amusement tlmn for utility; the two lumps of iron pyrites certainly answering tho 

 purpose a great deal better.&quot; 



&quot;They have a very dextrous Method of kindling Fire; in order to which, they prepare two small 

 Pieces of dry Wood, which having made flat, they next make a small Hole in eo&amp;lt; h, and having flttixl into 

 these Holes a little, cylindrical Piece of &quot;Wood, to which a Thong is fastened, they whirl it about thereby 

 with such a Velocity, that by rubbing the. Pieces of Wood one against tin* other, this Motion soon sets 

 them on lire.&quot; Ellis, Voyage to Hudsons Kay, p. 2 .14. 



A picture of the process is given opposite page 132, in which a man holds the socket, while a woman 

 works the thong (western shore of Hudson Bay, near Chesterfield Inlet). 



Ilao also mentions a similar drill used in the same region in 1847 (Narrative, p. 187) : and there is a 

 specimen in the National Museum, collected by MacFarlano, and said to bo the kind &quot;in use until 

 lately&quot; in the Mackenzie and Anderson region. 



Dall figures a fire drill with bow and mouthpiece formerly in use at Norton Sound (Alaska, p. 142) ; 

 and Hooper (Tents, etc., p. 187) describes a similar drill at Plover Bay. 



From Nordenskiiild s account (Vega, vol. 2, p. 121) the tircdrill seems to be still generally used by tho 

 natives at tho Vega s winter quarters. He says that the women appeared more accustomed to the use 

 of tho drill than tho men, and that a little oil was put on the end of the drill. 



&quot;Kotzobuo s Voyage, vol. :t, p. 200. 



Contribution to N. A. Ethnology, vol. 1, p. 82. 



