MURDOCH.] SCOOPS AND SKIMMERS. 309 



bone. The left end has been broken across obliquely near the joint 

 and mended with whalebone stitches. Round the lower edge of the 

 rim runs a row of twenty-seven pairs of small holes 0-2 inch from the 

 edge. The holes of each pair are connected by a deep channel, and a 

 narrow shallow groove, probably for ornament, joins the pairs. On the 

 left side are eight extra holes between the pairs, which are not used. 

 Through these holes, omitting the first two pairs in the right-hand end, 

 is laced a piece of seal thoiig, thus : Starting at the point of the oval, the 

 two ends of the thong are passed through the pair of holes there from 

 the outside and the bight drawn home into the channel; the ends are 

 crossed, the left end going to the right, and vice versa, and passed out 

 through the farther hole of the next pair and in through the nearer, and 

 so on till the ends meet at the broad end of the oval where they are tied 

 together, thus making twenty-five loops on the inside of the rim into 

 which the netting is fastened. This is made of strips of thin whale 

 bone, interwoven, over and under each other, passing up through one 

 loop and down through the next. There are eleven longitudinal strands 

 passing obliquely from right to left, the same number from left to right, 

 and eleven transverse strands, making a network with elongated hex 

 agonal apertures. The strips are not one continuous piece. The bowl 

 thus made is fastened to the handle by three pieces of stout seal thoiig. 

 The whole lashing was put on wet, and allowed to shrink. 



Nordenskiold mentions and figures a scoop of almost identically the 

 same pattern, but smaller, in general use for the same purposes at 

 Pitlekaj. 1 A smaller scoop or .skimmer (elauatln) is also universally 

 used. We inadvertently neglected to preserve a specimen of this very 

 common implement, though we had two or three about the station for 

 our own use. I shall therefore have to describe it from memory. The 

 handle is a flat, straight stick with rounded edges, about 18 inches or 2 

 feet long, 1 inches broad, and three-fourths inch thick. The bowl is 

 made of two pieces of antler &quot; palm &quot; of such a shape that when they 

 are fastened together on the end of the stick they make a shallow cup 

 about 3 inches long by 3 wide, with a longitudinal crevice along the 

 middle which allows the water to drain off. The tip of the handle is 

 beveled off on both sides so as to fit into the inside of this cup, along 

 the junction of the two pieces, each of which is fastened to it by one or 

 two neat stitches of whalebone. The two pieces are fastened together 

 in front of the handle with a stitch. 



In addition to the use of these scoops for skimming the fishing holes, 

 and reeling up the line, as already described, they also serve as scrapers 

 to remove snow and hoarfrost from the clothing. In the winter most 

 of the men and boys, epecially the latter, carry these skimmers whenever 

 they go out doors, partly for the sake ot having something in their 

 hands, as we (tarry sticks, and partly for use. The boys are very fond 

 of using them to pick up and sling snowballs, bits of ice, or frozen dirt, 

 which they do with considerable force and accuracy. 



1 Vega. vol. 1, ]&amp;gt;. 4il3. 



