July 25, 1884.] 



SCIENCE, 



85 



and only reaches perfection in the old women 

 of the tribe, some of whom can prepare a lamp 

 so that it will give a good steady flame for 

 several hours, while usually half an hour is the 

 best that can be expected. The}' are con- 

 stantly broken ; and those I saw thus injured 

 were cemented with a mixture of blood, clay, 

 and hair, according to the Innuits, although I 



Fig. 10. 



could not verify the mixture by watching the 

 operation. Fig. 9 is a good view of a lamp 

 (from Hall's 'Narrative of the second arctic ex- 

 pedition') that has been broken, and repaired by 

 sinew ; and, although I do not now recall any 

 such mending, I should think it better than the 

 other, although, as far as I could see, the first 

 way was so perfect that new cracks would form 

 directly beside the old, but not in it ; and I 

 suppose that the one mentioned by Hall may 

 have had this cement in addition to the sewing, 

 in order that it should hold oil. Heavy as it 

 is, the natives carry it with them everywhere ; 

 and I hardly know of any thing in civilization 

 that could effectually replace it, were they even 

 inclined to do so. Its constant companion is 

 the stone kettle, which is nothing more nor 



Fig. 11. 



less than a rectangular vessel (fig. 10), hold- 

 ing from a quart to a gallon, whose flat bottom 

 is a little shorter than the flame of the lamp 

 directly over which it swings, so that the 

 flame just touches its bottom. It is superior, 

 for their use, to brass, copper, or sheet-iron 

 vessels of any shape, and has seldom been 



replaced by them, even when these could be 

 readily had ; and the few cases I know have 

 been unwilling ones. It suffers the same 

 mishaps in breakage, mendings, and journeys, 

 as its constant fellow the lamp, to which it is 

 suited in size, and from which it is seldom 

 parted. Over a framework of long wooden 

 sticks, thrust through the side of the igloo if 

 horizontal, or into the snow-platform if perpen- 

 dicular, is laid a bent piece of wood or a barrel- 

 hoop (fig. 11), across which is woven inrough 

 design a number of sinew strings, forming a 

 network ; and on this net are laid the reindeer 

 stockings and gloves, and ever}' thing, in fact, 

 that is required to be warmed or dried. This 

 net can always be found in every igloo, and 

 hanging from every sledge that is transporting 

 household effects. 



The seal-skin bucket (fig. 12) holds from 

 two quarts to double 

 as many gallons, and 

 is generall}' made 

 large, so that its con- 

 tents will not freeze 

 solid during the night. 

 It is made of seal-skin 

 (the smaller hair-seal), 

 tanned so as to be de- 

 prived of the hair, and 

 furnished with a han- 

 dle of the same ma- 

 terial sewed on. It 



always bulges out on one side into a sort of 

 spout, where, by constant use in drinking from 

 this place, they have produced it. When 

 empty of water, and clogged with ice (as it 

 usually is when the} T start to the ice- 

 well to refill it), it is given a vigorous 

 beating over a sledge, a hard snow-drift, 

 or, if in a sportive mood, over a dog's 

 head, the broken ice-splinters flying in 

 every direction, leaving it as limber as a 

 piece of canvas. The im-moo'-sik. or 

 musk-ox ladle, already described as sub- 

 serving another purpose, and seal-skin 

 bucket, are slowly giving way to the uten- 

 sils of a similar character of civiliza- 

 tion. 



The reindeer bedding can hardly be 

 treated under this title, and the snow-knife 

 and snow-shovel were described in my 

 former article. The sum total of ' igloo im- 

 plements ' shows them, therefore, to agree in 

 simplicity and small numbers with all other 

 implements with which the people wrest an 

 existence from a niggardly nature. 



Frederick Schwatka, 



Lieut. U. S. army. 



Fig. 12. 



