576 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



on Greeulaiul, Craiiz and Egede, though they carefally note and de- 

 scribe the plan by wood-boring. Later explorers going higher north in 

 western Greenland have found it. Dr. Erail Bessels, writing about the 

 Itah Eskimo of Smith Sound, says : 



The catkins of the arctic willow are used as tinder to catch the sparks which have 

 been produced through the grinding of two pieces of stone.'* 



Dr. E. K. Kane gives a more complete account from nearly the same 

 locality, the Arctic Highlands of northwest Greenland. He says that 

 the Eskimo of Anoatok struck fire from two stones, one a plain piece 

 of angular milky quartz, held in the right hand, the other apparently 

 an oxide of iron [pyrites or iron ore'?] They were struck together after 

 the true tinder-box fashion, throwing a scanty supply of sparks on a 

 tinder composed of the silky down of the willow catkins {Salix lanata) 

 which he held on a lump of dried moss.t 



Very much farther west on Melville Peninsula Parry gives a com- 

 plete and interesting description of the primitive way. This account 

 gives us a link between the western and eastern Eskimo. He writes : 



For the purpose of obtaining fire, the Eskimo use two lumps of common pyrites, 

 from which sparks are struck into a little leathern case (see fig. 25, pi. Lxxiv) contain- 

 ing moss well dried and rubbed between the hands. If this tinder does not readily 

 catch, a small quantity of the white floss of the seed of the ground willow is laid 

 above the moss. As soon as a spark has caught it is gently blown till the fire has 

 spread an inch around, when the pointed end of a piece of wick being applied, it 

 soon bursts into a flame, the whole process having occupied perhaps two or three 

 minutes.t 



The Museum was in possession of a specimen catalogued, "Moss- 

 bag and lumps of pyrites used by Innuit for getting fire," collected by 

 •Capt. C, F. Hall at Pelly Bay, in latitude 69°, longitude 90°, several 

 degrees west of Melville Peninsula. 



The only other record of the process under consideration among the 

 Eskimo is found in the Aleutian Islands. There is absolutely no evi- 

 dence had by the writer that the Eskimo south of Kotzebue Sound 

 (Western Eskimo) use the pyrites and flint for making fire. The latest 

 information about the Aleutian Islanders is given in a manuscript 

 of the careful explorer, Mr. Lucien M. Turner. His observation will 

 serve to explain the description of striking a light by earlier travelers. 



They use the four part drill but they also use pyrites. A stone containing quartz 

 and pyrites is struck against another similar one, or a beach pebble, into a mass of 

 sea bird down sprinkled with powdered sulphur. This ignites and is quickly caught 

 on finely shredded blades of grass or beaten stalks of wild parsnips. This method 

 prevails to this day on the islands west of Uualashka. 



The people told Mr. Turner that this was the ancient way. There is 

 a doubt in the writer's mind that Sauer's (Billing's Expedition, page 

 59), and Campbell's (Voyage, ])age 59,) observations, brought together 

 by Bancroft,§ were accurate with regard to the stones used. All the 



* Die amerikaniscbe Nordpol-Expedition. Leipzig, 1879. p, 358. 



t Kane. — Arctic Explorations, i, p. 379. 



t Parry.— Second Voyage. London, 1824. p. 504. 



§ Bancroft.— Native Races of tlie Pacific States, i, p. 91, 



