15 



Domestic industry and arts. 



We know that in general, as far as the raw materials are 

 to be obtained, each family fabricates its own utensils and other 

 necessaries itself. It is stated that in Alaska not only Indians 

 but also some Eskimo tribes know how to fabricate cooking 

 vessels out of baked clay. If this assertion is correct, it might 

 seem to be of interest in one respect, in as much as the art 

 of making pottery has by some ethnologists been fixed as one 

 of the chief points designating an advance in culture. But in 

 the entire remainder of the Eskimo territory this art is quite 

 unknown, and even if tried, the want of fuel as well as the 

 nature of the soil generally would interfere with its practice. 

 The ordinary material used by the Eskimo for culinary vessels 

 and lamps is the well known potstone whose occurrence is 

 confined to certain localities scattered throughout the Arctic 

 Regions. In connection with a few other commodities it has 

 been the chief object of ancient intertribal trade. 



The art exhibited by the Alaska Eskimo in ORNAMENTING , 

 THEIR WEAPONS AND UTENSILS is often mentioned in travellers' 

 reports from the time when they were first visited by Europeans. 

 To their skill in carving and engraving we must join the taste 

 displayed in the same way in making their clothing. Again 

 when we pass from Alaska to the East, we see this relish for 

 the fine arts declining , and in Western Greenland proofs of it 

 have been rather scarce. But the latest expedition to the East- 

 coast of this country has discovered, that a small isolated tribe a 

 here in the vast deserts of the extreme East almost rivals the 

 Alaska artists with respect to carving in bone and ornamenting 

 their weapons and utensils. The chief difference is, that in 

 Alaska engravings illustrating human life and the animals of 

 the country are the most popular objects of the artist, whereas 

 the East Greenlanders excell in small reliefs representing for 



