118 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bdll. 192 



categories: (1) well made and (2) crude, and the latter may be further 

 subdivided on the basis of size. Lamps were most often made by 

 hollowing out easily worked beach cobbles of limestone. Some of 

 the more carefully finished lamps, shaped inside and out, were of 

 hard rocks such as schist, basalt, and metamorphosed sediments. 



Within the memory of living informants, stone lamps were used 

 for light, either in the main room of the old-fashioned house or in the 

 small sleeping rooms. Seal oil was used for fuel and the wick was 

 a twisted rag or a bunch of beach grass. When shown pictures of 

 lamps from Cook Inlet, one informant recognized these and specified 

 that the lip at the narrower end was to keep the wick from slipping 

 into the oil and becoming extinguished if the lamp were moved. She 

 also said that the groove in the bottom of the bowl was to retain oil 

 after the rest of the reservoir went dry. Yakutat lamps also had 

 such features, she said, although we suspect that her report of a 

 lamp in her father's house with four wick lips may be exaggerated, 

 or else she referred simply to the use of four wicks in one plain lamp. 



Ten carefully shaped lamps were found: six from Old Town III, 

 three from Old Town II, and one from Diyaguna'Et. An additional 

 fine lamp from the last site was seen in the house of one of our friends. 

 These lamps were circular, or nearly so, and measured from 10 to 24 

 cm. in diameter, from 4.0 to 8 cm. in height, with reservoir depths 

 of only 0.8 to 2.5 cm. Three lamps have a groove or ledge running 

 around the inside of the bowl (pi. 11, e, and fig. 12, 6; fig. 12, c). 

 The rest lack this feature, although four, at least, have a small 

 depression in the bottom of the reservoir (pi. 11, a, and fig. 12, a; 

 pi. 11, d,^\. 12, c). 



Of the six lamps from Old Town III, one (fig. 12, c) has a broad 

 groove on the flaring rim and another just inside, both probably 

 ornamental rather than utilitarian. In the bottom of the reservoir 

 is a broad, shallow V-shaped depression, like the groove in the bottom 

 of many Pacific Esldmo lamps to direct the flow of oil to the wick. 

 Another lamp has a single broad groove inside the rim (pi. 11, e, and 

 fig. 12, h). The lamp found by one of the natives at Diyaguna'Et 

 (pi. 3, a) has a shaUow wick lip in the broad, rounded rim, whfle the 

 bottom of the bowl is excavated to leave a wide, sloping, but not 

 pronounced, ledge inside the rim. 



None of these particular features was found on the three specimens 

 from Old Town II. Instead, one of the latter is a circular lamp with 

 a plain rim and a small depression in the middle of the bowl (pi. 11, 

 a; fig. 12, a). Also there is what appears to be the fragment of a 

 similar lamp, although the center of the reservoir is missing. The 

 third lamp from Old Town II has flaring walls and a flat base, while 

 the inside of the bowl is gently rounded. 



