558 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



Eskimo in other localities often use such make-shifts. Cup cavities 

 are ofteu observed iu the handles of knives and other bone and ivory 

 tools where tliey have used them for heads or the iire-drill. 



Cumberland Gulf is the next locality to the northward. There are 

 several specimens in the collection from this part of Baffin Land, pro- 

 cured by the famous explorer, Cai)tain Hall, and the less known, but 

 equally indefatigable Kumleiu. The fire-making implements from 

 Cumberland Gulf have a markedly different appearance from tliose of 

 any other locality in the Eskimo area. They have a crude look, and 

 there is a paucity of ornameutiou unusual among this people. The 

 drill bow is one of the things which the Eskimo usually decorates, but 

 these bows have not even a scratch. 



It can be inferred that in Baffin Land, more unfavorable conditions 

 prevail than in southern Alaska. It must be this cause coupled with 

 poor food supply, that have conspired to make them the most wretched 

 of the Eskimo. 



The hearth (fig. 21, pi. LXXiVj is of drift oak. It w'as collected at Fro- 

 bisher Bay by Capt. Charles F. Hall. It has central holes, and appears 

 to be very unfavorable wood for fire-making. Tbe block hearth is also 

 from Frobisher Bay (fig. 22, pi. lxxiv). It is an old piece of hendock, 

 with two central communicating holes. The mouth-piece is a block of 

 ivory. Another mouth-])iece is a bit of hard wood soaked in oil ; it was 

 used with a bone drill having an iron point. A very small, rude bow 

 goes with this set (fig. 24). 

 Our knowledge of eastern Greenland has been very much increased 



by the explorations of Holm 

 and Garde, who reached a 

 village on the east coast 

 never before visited by a 

 white man. Extensive col- 

 lections were made, both of 

 information and specimens. 

 In reference to fire-making, 

 Mr. Holm reports : 



"They make fire by turuiug a 

 hard stick, of wliich the socket end 

 is dipped in train oil, very rapidly 

 around by means of a sealskin 

 thong with handles. This stick is 

 iif Angmagsaiikeine, 1887. ) ' fixed at one end into a head set 



with bone, and the othereud is pressed down into a cavity on the lower piece of wood 

 (fig. 25). Therefore there must be two persons in order to make a fire. One turns 

 the drill with the cord, while tho other presses it down on the hearth ; both support 

 the block with their feet. As soon as the dnst begins to burn they fan it with the 

 hand. When it is ignited, they take it and put it into dried moss {sphagnum), blow 

 it, and soon get a blaze. In this way they make a fire in an incredibly short time."* 



'Danish Umiak Expedition to Eastern Greenland, 18c8. p. 28. Plate xiv contains 

 the figure. 



(Angmagsalik Eskii 



Pig 25. 

 Fire-making Set. 



E. Greenland. Copied from G. Holm's Ethnologisk 



