MURDOCH. } SAWS—DRILLS. 175 
found the natives of Iglulik, in 1821-1823, using a saw made of a notched 
piece of iron. On our asking Nikawa/alu, one day, what they had for 
tools before they got iron he said that they had drills made of seal bones 
and saws made of the shoulder blade of the reindeer. Some time after- 
wards he brought over 
a model of such a saw, 
which he said was ex- 
actly like those for- 
merly used. Fig. 147, 
No. 89476 {1206}, repre- 
sents this specimen. It 
is made by cutting off the anterior edge of a reindeer’s scapula in a 
straight line parallel to the posterior edge and cutting fine saw teeth 
on this thin edge. The spine is also cut off nearly flat. This makes a 
tool very much like a carpenter's backsaw, the narrow part of the 
scapula forming a convenient handle. 
Fig. 148, No. 56559 [15], shows how other implements were utilized 
before it was easy to obtain saws in plenty. Itis a common case knife 
stamped on the blade, ‘ Wilson, Hawksworth, ———n & Co., Sheffield,” 
which perhaps came 
— 2 from the Plover, with 
een Naan ae saw teeth cut on the 
edge. Itwas picked 
up at the Utkiavwin 
cemetery, where it 
had been exposed with a corpse. Saws are now a regular article of 
trade, and most of the natives are provided with them of various styles 
and makes. The name for saw is ulua/ktun. 
Drills and borers.—The use of the bow drill appears to be universal 
among the Eskimo. Those at present employed at Point Barrow do 
not differ from the large series collected at the Mackenzie and Ander- 
son rivers by MacFarlane. The drill is a slender rod of steel worked to 
a drill point and imbedded in a stout wooden shaft, which is tapered to 
a rounded tip. This fits into a stone socket imbedded in a wooden block, 
which is held between the teeth, so that the point of the drill can be 
pressed down against the object to be drilled by the head, leaving both 
hands free to work the short bow, which has a loose string of thong long 
enough to make one turn round the shaft. The collection contains ten 
of these modern steel or iron drills, fifteen bows, and seven mouthpieces. 
No. 89502 [853], figured in Point Barrow Rept., Ethnology, P1. 1, Fig. 1, 
has been selected as a typical drill (nia/ktun). The drill is a cylindrical 
rod of steel beaten out into a small lanceolate point, which is filed 
sharp on the edges. The shaft is made of hard wood. The remaining 
drills are of essentially the same pattern, varying in total length from 
about 11 inches to 163. 
Fig. 149, No. 89499 [968] shows a somewhat unusual shape of shaft. 
The lashings round the large end are to keep it from splitting any more 
Fic. 147.—Saw made of deer’s scapula. 
Fig. 148.—Saw made of a case-knife. 
