463 



sides are smoother than the two end sides of the vessel, the 

 grain of the wood lying in the longitudinal direction of the 

 vessel. The upper edge has two or three fractures, probably 

 due to rough usage. Along one of the two narrow sides the 

 upper edge projects about 1 cm out over the side surface ; this 

 projection, which is somewhat irregularly cut, was perhaps in- 

 tended as a rest for the hand in carrying the vessel, or else as a 

 lip through which the content might be poured out. In the 

 middle of one of the long sides near the upper edge, there is 

 a minute hole. 



The vessel was probably a tray on which meat was served, 

 like the hollowed wooden blocks used by the Ammassalik Eskimo 

 as meat-bowls^), although it differs somewhat from them in 

 form. It more closely resembles the vessels, likewise hollowed 

 out of a piece of wood, in the Gjøa collection (Amundsen) from 

 King William Land (in the Ethnographical Museum at Chri- 

 stiania). There are similar trays and dishes from West Green- 

 land also (National Museum at Copenhagen, cabinets 31 and 

 92). Boas^) gives an illustration of a dish made of wood, of 

 a quite similar type, from the west coast of Hudson Bay. 

 'They are sometimes edged with ivory either all round or only 

 at the ends'. They also occur in Alaska, as we are informed 

 by Murdoch^), who gives a figure of a meat bowl with flat 

 bottom and rounded sides, and by Nelson^): "cut from a single 



piece of wood to hold meat, fat etc., both raw, and 



cooked." 



hiv. Amd. 84 (Fig. 53), from Cape Tobin, is a bone stick, 

 cylindrical in cross section, 30'6 cm long, curved, tapering 

 towards one end, with a handle irregularly cut at the thick 

 end. The handle is separated from the other part by an annu- 



'I Holm 69. 



-') Boas II, 99. fig. 143 b. 

 ') Murdoch 1. 89, fig. 19. 

 ') Nelson 70. 



30* 



