390 W. Thalbitzer 



extend four or five inches behind the bow" (Nelson)^). The type is 

 different from that of the East Eskimo receptacle. It is sometimes 

 used along with the bladder float as a drag to impede the flight of 

 the animal through the water. Various other small variations of 

 this type also occur in Alaska^) (cf. under sealing floats). 



The snow scraper or snow beater (fig. 93, cf. p. 48) is made 

 of bone and very narrow (slender) at Ammassalik and in South 

 Greenland. The Ammassalikers call it ilarneeiaat 'instrument for 

 scraping frost or rime off'. A more characteristic, broader type is 

 known from the northern parts of both the east and west coast ^). 

 The same instrument also shows similar variations outside Green- 

 land, probably connected with its different use e. g. scraping or 

 beating the glazed frost or snow off the kaiak, the fur clothes etc. 

 or cutting the blocks of snow for the snow-houses. Both broad 

 and narrow types are found in the western districts of Hudson 

 Bay^), whereas only narrow forms seem to occur further west, in 

 Alaska 5). 



Kroeber gives an illustration of the snow-knife of the Smith 

 Sound Eskimo which is not unlike the Ammassalik type. He states, 

 that it "is used to cut the blocks of snow" (for the snow-houses)^). 



Further south on the west coast, in North Greenland, old dis- 

 coveries have been noted both of the broader and the narrower 

 type. It is not clear, to what extent the two forms should be kept 

 separate and regarded as two different kinds of implement, each 

 with its own use. L. Turner, for example, makes a distinction 

 between them: the kaiak scraper (i.e. snow scraper) of the Eastern 

 Hudson Bay Eskimo "resembles a snow knife but is shorter" ^). 

 Franz Boas gives a full description of the various, though related 

 types of snow knives, snow beaters and double-edged knives (pana). 

 The short and broad one-edged type we know from North Green- 

 land must be closely connected with the snow-knife (made all in 

 one piece) of Boas from Southampton Island^), but this type is not 

 known from Ammassalik or the southern West Greenland. On the 

 other hand, the narrow snow-knife or "snow-beater" (likewise made 



') Nelson (1899) p. 138, figure see PI. LIV. 



2) Cf. Nelson 1. с. PI. LXXIX, fig. 4 and Mason (1900) PL XIV. 



3) Thalbitzer (1909) pp. 4.38— 440. Stolpe (190(jj p. 104; PI. IV, fig. 12. 

 ■*) Boas (1901—1907) p. 409, fig. 207. 



■') Murdoch (1892) p. 305, fig. 305; Nelson (1899) PI. L and p. 77, fig. 21. 



«) Kroeher (1899) p. 271. fig. 2. 



') Turner (1894) p. 252. 



«) Boas (1907J p. 409, fig. 207, cf. (1909) p. 535. 



