l68  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    g6 
Thickness. — In  addition  to  its  coarse  texture,  Eskimo  pottery  is 
remarkable  for  its  thickness,  and  in  this  respect  the  sherds  from  the 
Hillside  site  are  no  exception.  The  average  thickness  of  the  ware  is 
I  to  1.5  cm.  The  thinnest  sherd  found  measured  .5  cm,  but  those  with 
a  thickness  of  more  than  2  cm  were  much  more  common ;  one  sherd 
was  2.7  cm  thick.  Grass-tempered  sherds  were  either  thin  or  medium 
in  thickness ;  sand-  and  gravel-tempered  sherds  were  thin,  medium, 
or  thick. 
MctJwd  of  unDnifacturc— The  vessels  seem  to  have  been  shaped  by 
molding  directly  from  the  clay  rather  than  by  the  coiling  process.  A 
single  rim  sherd  (pi.  52,  fig.  2)  bears  evidence  of  coiling,  three  distinct 
strips  being  visible  at  the  rim.  However,  this  would  appear  to  be  an 
exceptional  case,  for  the  many  other  sherds  show  no  evidence  of  coil- 
ing, and  their  strong  tendency  to  flake  ofif  in  layers  shows  that  in  most 
cases  at  least,  this  method  could  not  have  been  employed. 
Shapes. — No  entire  vessels  were  found,  but  many  of  the  sherds 
were  large  enough  to  show  that  they  were  rounded  in  shape.  The 
bases  and  rims  were  uniformly  rounded ;  not  a  trace  was  found  of  a 
square,  flat  bottom  or  a  rectangular  rim,  features  which  are  invaria- 
bly present  on  modern  St.  Lawrence  cooking  pots  and  lamp  rests. 
There  was  also  no  evidence  of  the  lugs  and  suspension  holes  such  as 
are  found  on  modern  St.  Lawrence  cooking  pots,  nor  of  the  ridges 
which  are  so  typical  of  the  modern  St.  Lawrence  lamps.  It  appears 
that  the  lamps  were  shallow,  thick-walled,  circular  vessels,  somewhat 
similar  to  those  used  by  the  modern  Eskimo  of  the  Yukon-Kuskokwim 
region,  but  flatter,  with  a  straight  slope  from  the  rim  to  the  somewhat 
conical  base.  Plate  84,  figure  3,  shows  half  of  a  lamp  of  this  type  from 
the  Punuk  site,  levoghiyoq.  Plate  53,  figure  2,  is  a  lamp  of  similar 
type  excavated  by  the  writer  at  an  old  site  on  Imaruk  Basin,  Seward 
Peninsula.  The  cooking  pots  were  thinner,  much  deeper,  and  some- 
what cylindrical  in  shape.  On  many  of  the  sherds  there  is  a  thick 
black  incrustation,  caused  by  the  burning  of  oil  which  adhered  to  the 
sin^face. 
Surface  finish  and  decoration. — The  surfaces  were  finished  by 
smoothing,  no  attempt  having  been  made  at  polishing ;  a  slip  or  wash 
was  never  applied.  Although  the  pottery  was  for  the  most  part  un- 
decorated,  a  large  number  of  the  sherds  were  corrugated  on  the  ex- 
terior, a  decoration  which  had  resulted  from  the  application  of  a  paddle 
or  other  implement  bearing  parallel  grooves.  One  of  these  wooden 
pottery  paddles,  from  Miyowagh,  is  shown  in  plate  47,  figure  17.  It 
is  27  cm  long  and  8.4  cm  wide  at  the  lower  end ;  the  back  side  is 
