HritllOCH.] 



SNOW AND ICE TOOLS. 



307 



Km. 307. Snow shovel made of a 

 whale s scapula. 



been a makeshift or an 



Fig. 307 (No. 89775 [ll&amp;gt;50| from Utkiavwlii) is a peculiar implement, 

 the only one of the kind that we saw. It is a shovel. 17 inches long, 

 made of a whale s scapula, with the anterior and posterior borders cut 

 off straight so as to make it 1. 3^ inches broad, and Hie superior margin 

 beveled off to an edge. Tim handle is made, by flattening the neck of 

 the scapula and cutting through it a large 

 horizontal elliptical slot, below which the end 

 of the scapula is worked into a rounded bar 1 

 inch in diameter. The cutting around this slot 

 appears new, and red ocher has been rubbed 

 into the crevices. On the other hand, the bev 

 eling of the digging edge appeared to be old. 

 Though colored with red ocher, the edge is 

 gapped as if from use, and 

 there are fragments of tun 

 dra moss sticking to it. It 

 is probably an old imple 

 ment &quot; touched up &quot; for sale. 

 We did not learn whether 

 such tools were now gener 

 ally used. This may have 

 individual fancy. 



Fig. 308 (No. 89521 [1249] from Utkiavwlfi) is an 

 other peculiar tool of which we saw no other speci 

 men. It appears to be really an old implement and 

 was said to have been used for digging or picking in 

 the snow. It is a stout sharp-pointed piece, of bone, 

 3 inches long, inserted in the end of a piece of a long 

 bone of some animal, 4-7 inches long and about 1 

 wide, which serves as a haft. 



Icepick* The ivory ice pick (tu u) always attached 

 to the Real-harpoon has been already described. This 

 differs from the tdk of the (ireenlanders and other 

 eastern Eskimo in having a sharp bayonet point, 

 while the latter is often chisel-pointed. All the men 

 now have iron ice picks which they use for cutting 

 the holes for fishing, setting seal nets, and such pur 

 poses. These are made of some white man s tool 

 which has a socket, like a harpoon iron, a whale lance, 

 FIG. sog. SHOW pick. ;l boarding knife or bayonet, and usually have a rather 

 slender blade about a foot long, mounted on a pole 6 or 8 feet long. The 

 point is sharp and polygonal, generally four-sided. The tool is managed 

 with both hands and used to split off fragments of ice by rather ohliijuc 

 blows. In other words, it is used in precisely the same way as the little 

 single-handed pick which we use in refrigerators. For chiseling off pro 

 jecting corners of ice when making a path out through the ice pack, they 



