FIRE-MAKING APPARATUS. 565 



Cape Vancouver is represented by a fine old hearth. This object 

 has evidently been prized by its owner ; it has had two rows of fire- 

 holes (fig. 35), one row bored on the step in front of the first holes made ; 

 some of the holes are bored clear through. The reason why this was 

 valued is, because the wood is so tindery that it is easy to make fire 

 upon it. 



Chalitmute, in the Kuskokwira region, on the northern side of the 

 bay of that name, opposite Nunivak Island, is the next locality south- 

 ward, to be considered. The parts of this set are exceptionally well- 

 finished. The hearth is (pi. Lxxvrii, fig. 36) stepped. It has four holes 

 prepared for use; on one, fire has been made. The drill is unusually 

 thick. The mouth-piece has no teeth-grip, and there is no evidence 

 that it was ever held in the mouth. It is intended to be held in the 

 hand. This mouth-piece is set with an oval socket-stone of black 

 obsidian, ground down into facets and polished. The cord handles 

 are fine, large teeth of the sea lion. The centers of the circles so char- 

 acteristic of Eskimo art, are inlaid with wood. The holes for the 

 drill cord are narrow ; they must have been dug through with a sharp, 

 narrow instrument. As before remarked, this is the region where the 

 hand rest is more used than the mouth-piece, and the bow is not used 

 at all. 



The fire-making set from the Togiak Eiver, was collected in 1880, by 

 Sergt. I. Applegate, of the U. S. Signal Corps. Kassianamute, from 

 which village it comes, is in the Bristol Bay region, but this set has a 

 different appearance from the former outfits (pi. Lxxix., fig. 37). The 

 hearth is a block of wood worked out at one end into a handle. It is 

 remarkable in having central holes not connecting, and with no con- 

 necting grooves. In this it closely resembles the block from East 

 Greenland (fig. 25). This hearth is of soft, tindery wood, and doubtless 

 when the holes became too deep to allow the powder to mass around the 

 edge, the upper part of hearth was scarped down. The mouth-piece is 

 large, and is in the form of a seal. It has only a shallow, crescentic 

 teeth-grip ; from the size of the mouth-piece, its shape, and the absence 

 of a block to fasten between the teeth, it must have been nearly always 

 held in the hand of one of the operators. It is set with a round pebble, 

 mottled with green. The cord is a thong of rawhide with handles of 

 wood. 



The next locality is Koggiung, on the southern shore of Bristol Bay, 

 near its head. Two sets are shown from this locality. From the 

 hearths it will be seen that both fire-slots on the side and center holes 

 are used here. These sets are called nu-tshiin (fig. 38). The apparatus 

 shown in figure 38 has the stepped hearth. Both drill and hearth appar- 

 ently have been made for sale. The mouth-piece is a good one, set with a 

 large socket-piece of a black stone with green mottlings. This stone 

 is tolerably soft. It is much used by the Bristol Bay Eskimo for 

 making labrets, etc. The teeth-grip is very shallow. The hearth 



