122 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bdll. 192 



FIRE MAKING 



A small battered lump of quartz from Old Town I was identified 

 by the natives as a strike-a-light, and a similar function was suggested 

 for one of the hammerstones. The hand drill, cord drill, and bow 

 driU also were used at Yakutat to make fire, but only the hand drill 

 was used for holes. 



Drucker (1950, Trait 957) found that the Tlmgit were the only 

 Northwest Coast tribe to make fire by percussion. Battered quartz 

 pebbles found at Daxatkanada were recognized as strike-a-Hghts by 

 the Angoon Tlingit, who, like the Yakutat natives, said that wax from 

 the ears was put on one of the stones or on the tinder to make the spark 

 catch better (de Laguna, 1960, p. 102). The Copper River Eyak 

 denied making fire by percussion (Birket-Smith and de Laguna, 1938, 

 p. 77). Both quartz and pyrites for strike-a-lights were found in the 

 Aleutians and Prince William Sound, although drills were also em- 

 ployed (de Laguna, 1956, p. 192). Quartz "hammerstones" from 

 Kachemak Bay may have been strike-a-hghts (de Laguna, 1934, p. 

 59), but it is unfortunate that we do not know how the ancient Pacific 

 Esldmo of Kachemak Bay I made fire, since Birket-Smith (1953, p. 

 184) beheves that percussion with stones was the earliest method 

 employed by the Eskimos, and that the bow driU for making fire 

 was later. 



The hand driU was universally employed on the Northwest Coast 

 for maldng fire (Drucker, 1950, Trait 954; Barnett, 1939, Trait 382). 

 In addition, the bow drill was used by the Tlingit, southern Haida, and 

 northern Kwakiutl, although Drucker (1950, Trait 955, p. 269) is not 

 sure that it was aboriginal. 



It would thus appear that with respect to methods of making fire 

 the Tlingit and Yakutat show a greater resemblance to the Eskimo 

 than to the other tribes of the Northwest Coast. 



WEAPONS 



STONE CLUB HEAD AND STONE PICKS 



A double-pointed head of hard crystalline rock for a war club 

 (pi. 5, c) was found on the floor of House 8 in Old Town II. It has a 

 lashing groove between two ridges that completely encircle the head 

 and would have been lashed to a T-shaped handle like the blade for a 

 splitting adz. Both points are broken off, but when complete the 

 specimen was probably 16 cm. long. The diameter at the hafting 

 groove is 5,8 by 3.3 cm. 



There are also three broken or unfinished, roughly chipped stone 

 picks, from 12.3 to over 17 cm. long, and from 1.6 by 4 cm. to 3.8 by 

 5 cm. in diameter. Two are from Old Town III, the third from Old 



