142 b 



GEOLOGICAL SrUVEV OP CANADA. 



Horn dish. 



Ladles and 

 spoons. 



Knives. 



Household 

 boxes. 



slightly lower than the ends, 5i inches. The dimensions of the interior 

 hollow of this mortar are 8 by 5f, an 3 : j- inches deep. Another 

 stone utensil obtained at Skidegate is a dish for preparing paint. 

 This is 6 inches long by 2J wide, in external dimensions, with a trough- 

 shaped bowl 4|- by If inches, in which the paint has evidently been 

 ground by rubbing from end to end with a second stone. 'When laid 

 with the hollow side downward, the exterior is found- to be carved to 

 represent some animal, probably a frog, in a constrained squatting atti- 

 tude. The carved side is represented in Fig. 12. 



Shells, especially those of the large mussel are frequently used as 

 spoons and small dishes. A very handsome dish, with an oval outline, 

 is also made from part of the larger end of the horn of the mountain 

 sheep. This is probably softened by steaming, and forced into a 

 symmetrical shape, then pared down thin and carved externally. Fig. 

 18 represents one of these. The mountain sheep horns, with those of 

 the mountain goat, are obtained in barter with the Tshimsians and 

 other Indians of the mainland, neither of the animals occuring in the 

 Queen Charlotte Islands. 



Large serviceable ladles are also made from the mountain sheep 

 horns, the lower part of the horn being widened to form an ample 

 bowl, and the upper straightened out to produce the handle. One 

 of these of the larger sort measures from the end of the handle to the 

 point of the bowl, round its convex surface, 2 feet 3^- inches. The bowd 

 itself is 8| inches long by 6 inches wide, and 2J deep. (Fig. 6.) The 

 spoons in ordinary use are six or seven inches long with large flat 

 bowls, made in a single piece from the horn of the mountain goat. 

 The handle may be carved to represent a human or other form. An- 

 other kind much prized and cared for, is made by attaching a bowl of the 

 usual form, made from a piece of mountain sheep or goat horn, to the 

 wider extremity of an entire horn of the mountain goat by a couple of 

 rivets. The goat horn, retaining its natural curve, is then elaborately 

 carved with human or other figures, according to the taste of the 

 maker. Such spoons may be about a foot in length. (Fig- 27.) 



Knives of all sorts are now in use, but some ingenuity is shown in 

 adapting old blades to new handles, manufacturing knives from files, 

 and so on. A knife used in cutting up fish is made by fixing one edge 

 of a thin square or oblong piece of iron in a cylindrical or flattened 

 jiiece of wood of slightly greater length. This has thus the form of a 

 small mincing knife. 



The boxes in which most of the goods and- chattels of the household 

 are packed away are made after a uniform plan. A small one 

 measured 20J inches high by 15 square. The sides are made of a 

 single wide thin piece of cedar, which is bent three times at a right 



