90 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
FOR PREPARING FOOD. 
Pots of stone and other materials (u‘tkuziv).—In former times, pots of 
soapstone resembling those employed by the eastern Eskimo, and 
probably obtained from the same region as the lamps, were used for 
cooking food at Point Barrow, but the natives have so long been able 
to procure metal kettles directly or indirectly from the whites (Elson 
found copper kettles at Point Barrow in 1826)! that the former have 
gone wholly out of use, and at the present day fragments only are to be 
found. There are four such fragments in the collection, of which three 
are of the same model and one quite different. 
No. 89885-6 [1559] (Fig. 20) is sufficiently whole to show the pattern 
of the first type. It is of soft gray soapstone. <A large angular gap is 
broken from the middle of one side, taking out about half of this side, 
and a small angular 
piece from the bot- 
tom. From the cor- 
ner of this gap the 
pot has been broken 
obliquely across the 
bottom, and mended 
in three places with 
stitches of whale- 
bone made as de- 
seribed under No. 
89865 [1321]. One end is cut down for about half its height, and the 
edge carried round in a straight line till it meets the gap im the broken 
side. This end appears to have been pieced with a fresh piece of stone, 
as there are holes for stitches in the edge of the whole side and in the 
upper edge of the broken side. There are also two “stitch holes” at 
the other side of the gap, showing how it was originally mended. A 
low transverse ridge across the middle of the whole end was probably 
an ornament. Holes for strings by which the pot was hung up are 
bored one-fourth to one-half inch from the brim. Two of these are 
bored obliquely through the corners, which are now broken off. The 
holes in the sides close to the corners were probably made to take the 
place of these. The pot is neatly and smoothly made, and the brim is 
slightly rounded. It shows signs of great age, and is blackened with 
soot and crusted with oil and dirt.’ 
Nos. 89886 [680] and 89868 [1096] are much less complete. They are 
the broken ends of pots slightly smaller than the above, but of pre- 
cisely the same pattern, even to the ornamental transverse ridge across 
the end.’ The string holes are bored through the corners as before, and 
ta 
l'1G, 20,—Stone pot 
1 Beechey’s Voyage, p. 572 
2This specimen was broken in transportation, and the pieces received different Museum numbers. 
It is now mended with glue. 
3Compare these pots with the two figured in Parry's 2d Voyage (plate opposite p. 160). The smaller 
of these has a ridge only on the end, but on the larger the ridge runs all the way round. The plate 
also shows how the pots were hung up. See also Fig. 1, plate opposite p. 548. 
