574 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



I 



Fig. 45.— 1. TiNUER Pocket. 2. Fire Bao. 

 (Part of Strike-a-light set). 



(Cat. No. 128i0,'j, U. S. N. M. Mackenzie River District, B. C. 



be assigned the specimen to this 

 locality on the evidence. Mr. 

 John Murdoch has, with a great 

 deal of probability^, questioned 

 this and thinks that it came 

 from Herschel Island with the 

 rest of Mr. Herendeen's collec- 

 tion and did not come from as 

 far east as Cape Bathurst. 

 While there is no improbability 

 that this method is practiced at 

 Cape Bathurst, yet the specimen 

 has the appearance of the Mac- 

 kenzie River strike- a- lights, 

 hence it is deemed advisable to 

 locate it in the Mackenzie River 

 district at Herschel Island. 



The essential parts of the ap- 

 paratus are a piece of pyrites, a 

 piece of flint and tinder. In the 

 more northern parts of the 



lecteclbyE.P. Herendeen.) EsfclmO arCa, tiudei IS ffiadO 



from the down from the stems and catkins of various species of dwarf 



arctic willows. At present the 



natives often soak the tinder in 



a strong solution bf gunpowder 



and water to make it quick ; an 



older way was to mix powdered 



charcoal with it. This plan is 



like the charring of the linen rags 



used iu the old-fashioned tinder 



boxes of forty years ago. The 



Eskimo then puts the tinder into 



a little round, flat pouch, with a 



flap in the middle (fig. 45, 1). 



The pyrites (fig. 46, 3) looks like 

 a short pestle, too much of which 

 appearance the repeated scraping 

 has no doubt given rise. The up- 

 per end is concave, while the lower 

 end has the original smooth sur- 

 face of the concretion. Pyrite is 

 found at Point Barrow in spher- 

 ical masses of various sizes up to 

 several pounds in weight. Tbese Fig 46. 3. riiiii~4 ^n flint stiukek and 

 spheres are nearly always cracked (p^,^ ,f slrile'a'^iight set.) 



iu two and scraped on the j.Ianu (^^t^ ^'- ''''''• l^i.^A^^^^fi^^S^] °'*'«' ^- ^' 



