MURDOCH. ] KNIVES. 153 
ish slate, 6 inches long and 2-6 inches broad, with the edges broadly bey- 
eled on both faces. The haft of spruce is in two longitudinal sections, 
put together so as to inclose the short tang of the blade, and is secured 
by a tight whipping of eighteen turns of fine seal twine, and painted 
with red ocher. This knife is 
new and was made for sale, 
but is undoubtedly a correct 
model of an ancient pattern, 
as No. 56676 [204] (Fig. 104), 
which is certainly ancient, ap- 
pears to be the blade of just 
such a knife. We were told that the latter was intended for cutting 
blubber. This perhaps means that it was a whaling knife. Mr. Nelson 
brought home a magnificent knife of precisely the same pattern, made 
of light green jade. 
The two knives, representing the fourth class, are both new and 
made for sale, having blades of soft slate. As we obtained no genuine 
knives of this pattern, it is possible that they are merely commercial 
fabrications. The two knives are very nearly alike, but the larger, No. 
89590 [984] (Fig. 105), is 
the more carefully made. 
The blade is of light green- 
ish gray slate, 6-2 inches 
long and 2 inches broad, 
and is straight nearly to 
the tip, where it curves to a sharp point, making a blade like that of 
the Roman gladius. The haft is a piece sawed out of the beam of an 
antler, and has a cleft sawed in one end to receive the short broad 
tang of the blade. The whipping is of sinew braid. 
The single-edged knives were probably all meant specially for cut- 
ting food, and are all of the same general pattern, varying in size from 
a blade only 25 inches long to one of 7 inches. The blade is generally 
more strongly curved along the edge than on the back and is usually 
sharp-pointed. It is fitted with a broad tang to a straight haft, usually 
shorter than the blade. There 
are in the collection four complete 
knives and five unhafted blades. 
No. 89597 [1052] (Fig. 106) isa typ- 
ical knife of thiskind. Theblade 
is of black slate, rather rough, and 
is 5-6 inches long (including the tang). The tang, which is about one-half 
inch long and the same breadth, is lashed against one end of the flat 
haft of bone which is cut away to receive it, with five turns of stout 
seal thong. No. 89594 [1053] differs from the preceding only in hay- 
ing the tang inserted in a cleft in the end of the haft, and No. 89539a 
Fia. 104.—Blade of slate hunting-knife. 
Fic. 105.—Large slate knife. 
Fic. 106.—Large single-edged slate knife. 
