304 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. 



It is finished off by windingthe end three or four times round these turns, 

 so as to tighten them up, and hitching it round two of them on cue side. 

 This method of hurting differs in no essential respect from that used on 

 the muuls and adzes above described. 



We have also two heads for such mattocks, which hardly differ from 

 the one described, except the No. 00494 [285] has the notches for the 

 lashings on the side of the head instead of on the upper surface. It is 

 16 inches long. The other, No: 89843 [1043], Fig. 3&amp;lt;)4, is a very rude 

 head made of an almost cylindrical piece of rib. This is a very old tool, 

 which from its oily condition has evidently been long laid away in 

 some blubber room at Utkiavwlfi. It is 15-2 inches long. 



These blunt-pointed mattocks are not so much used at present as 

 picks with a sharp point mounted in the same way, and specially adapted 

 for working iu ice or hard frozen soil. I have, however, never seen them 

 used for cutting holes in the ice for fishing, which some authors have sup 

 posed to be what they were meant for. Their shape makes them very 

 inconvenient for any such a purpose, except when the ice is very thin. 



The ice pick, like those carried on the butt of the spear, is under any 

 circumstances a more serviceable tool. These sharp pickax heads are 

 generally made of a walrus tusk, the natural shape of which requires 

 very little alteration to fit it for the purpose. We collected three of 

 these ivory heads, all very nearly alike, of which No. 565396 [9(5], Fig. 

 304/&amp;gt;, will serve as the type. This is the tip of a good-sized walrus 

 tusk, 14-2 inches long, preserving very nearly the natural outline of the 

 tusk except at the point, where it is rounded off rather more abruptly 

 above. It is keeled along the upper edge and on the lower edge at 

 the point, so that the latter is four-sided, and the sides of the butt are 

 flattened. On the under side the butt is cut off flat for about 3 inches, 

 leaving a low flange or ridge, and roughened with crosscuts to fit the 

 end of the haft, and the butt is perforated with two large tranverse eyes 

 for the lashing. The other two heads are almost exactly like this and 

 very nearly the same size. 



Sharp-pointed pick heads of whale s bone appear also to have been 

 used, probably at an earlier date than the neatly finished ivory ones, as 

 we collected three such heads, all very old and roughly made, and hav 

 ing notches or grooves for the lashings instead of eyes. Fig. 304c is 

 one of these, No. 89844 [1315], from Utkiavwlu, very rudely cut from a 

 piece of whale s rib, 12 inches long. 



1 do not recollect seeing any of these bone-headed picks in use, while 

 the ivory-headed one was one of the commonest tools. This Eskimo 

 tool is in use at Pitlekaj, a village supposed to be wholly inhabited by 

 sedentary Chukches. 1 



TOOLS FOR SNOW AND ICE WORKING. 



Snow knives. For cutting the blocks of snow used in building the 



NimlcDskiiild s figures, Vega, vol. 2, p. 123. 



