17 1 THK I'diNT i;.\i;i;()\v kskimc 



thin. I 



ij; sliaviii;,'s wliifli cml u\> like •■<■ 

 iisrd forth.- l.a.ldiii- l).-luccii sloe 



(1 hair." arc .•aicfully saved 

 • and IxMit. Whah-lMmc is 

 als.. s.iim-timcs shaved lor this special piiipos.'. The tool is essentially 

 a little spokeshave ahout I inches loni;, uhicli is held by the index and 

 second tin;;el' of the lif;ht lian.l, one on each hamlle, with tlie thumb 

 l>ivssed aj;ainst one end. and is drawn towaiil the workman. The col- 

 lection contains three specimens of the ordinary form (savigi!), repre- 

 sente<lbv>^J. .S!l.!i)(i |S,S,-.| (ti-nred in Point Harrow Keport, Ethnology, 

 I'l. 111. Fig.fi). This has a steel blade and a haft of walrus ivory. The 

 npiier face of the haft is convex and the under llal, and the blade, 

 which is bevele.l only on the upper face, is set at a sli-ht inclination to 

 the Hat face of the halt. Thee.lge of the blade inoje.-ts U-J inch from 

 the haft above and O-:', below. The hole at one end of the haft is for a 

 lanyard to han^ it iii) by. Tin- other two are of essentially the same 

 pattern, but have halts of reindeer antler. 



'flic collection also contains six tools of this description, with stone 

 blades, but they arc all new and very carelessly made, with hafts of 



SmW ["ll'i:!], from I'tkiavwih, which has a. rough blade of soft, light 

 iire.'insh slate. The other five have blades of 

 ilack or gray tiint, roughly flaked. All these 

 )lad<'s are glued in with oil dregs. No. 89652 

 lL'i'.">] is like the others iu shape, but more 

 Fiii. ui).-wii;ii.i...ii. <1kiv,,sI:ii,- neatl\ made, and is peculiar iu hiiviug a blade 

 of hard, com])act bone. This is inserted by saw- 

 ing a deep, narrow slit along one side of the haft from eud to eud. The 

 bla<le is wedded into the middle of the slit, the euds of which are neatly 

 tilled in with slips of the same material as the haft-. This was the only 

 tool of the kind seen. It is \ery jiidbable that shaves of stoue were 

 fornierly used, though we obtained no genuine specimens. The use of 

 oblong chips of Hint for this puri>ose would naturally suggest itself to 

 a savage, and the convenience of titling these flakes into a little haft 



would s 1 occur to him. No. 8!Mil() |117(i] is such an obhmg flint, 



llaked to an edge on oiw face, which is evidently old, and whiidi was 

 said to have been used for shaving whalebone. The material is black 

 Hint. Whalebone is often shaved nowadays with a eommou knife. The 

 slab of l)one is laid upon the thigh and the edge of the knife pressed 

 lirinly against it. with the blade peri.endicular to the surface of the 

 slab, whi.-h is drawn rapiilly un<ler it. 



N„,r.s-.— If the l-.skinio had not already invented the saw before they 

 became ac(piaiiiled with the whites they readily adopted the tool even 

 when they had scanty materials Ibr making it. Orantz' speaks of "a 

 litth- lock saw" as one of a (ireeidander's regular tools in his time, and 

 Egede^ mentions handsaws as a regular article of trade. Capt. Parry^ 



' GrtfuliiiHl, p. 175. ' 2a Voyage, p. 536, 



