12 Sypney H. BALL: 
tombs, one consisting of several pieces of beaten iron, the size of a dime, 
set in the groove of a bone handle; the other resembles our knives, 
consisting of a blade of iron inserted in a handle. The iron of the knives 
found in central and southern Greenland was the native iron of the 
Disco Island basalt (see page 35) for K. J. V. STEENSTRUP in 1879 found 
in an old Eskimo tomb at Ekaluit on Umanak fiord, not only iron knives, 
but also nine fragments of basalt containing globules and irregular 
splinters of native iron. From its wide distribution along the coast 
there was an extensive coastwise trade in it'). Meteoric iron was also 
an article of commerce, for Admiral Peary reports that part of the “Wo- 
man” meteorite had been carried away by the people of Etah many years 
ago. Ross in 1818 found the natives near Cape York using meteoric 
iron for knives and harpoon points, although soon thereafter it appears 
to have been supplanted by trade iron. The Eskimos told him that 
they cut off fragments with a hard stone, (Admiral Peary, loc. cited 
p. 146, says trap) and then beat it flat into oval-shaped pieces the size 
of a sixpence. These were then set in bone handles for knives and other 
implements. Admiral Релву obtained at Netinlumi a knife “with five 
small fragments of iron ingeniously set in a groove in the ivory handle” 
which had been found in an old house ruin. 
On Davis’ second voyage to find the northwest passage (1586) he 
reported that the Eskimo near Godhaab had “copper oare, blacke 
copper and red copper” (Hakluyt Soc. 188 p. 26) but I know of no 
other evidence that the Eskimo were acquainted with copper prior to 
the white man’s arrival. 
The boulders of cryolite (native name “Orsuksiksalt” or “seal fat’’) 
formed convenient tent and fishing net weights. There appears early 
in the eighteenth century to have been a certain coastwise trade among 
the Eskimos in cryolite. The use of powdered cryolite and finely-ground 
quartz as adulterants of snuff naturally only followed the arrival of 
the whites. 
Presumably the natives were not acquainted with coal prior to the 
arrival of the whites, their fuels being seal oil and turf. Coal mining 
by the Eskimos, however, began fairly early, certainly prior to 1780, 
largely to supply the needs of the resident Danes. In part, this consisted 
merely of picking up carbonized tree trunks, but both opencut mining 
and undercutting the seam into cliffs were also practiced. From 1780 
to 1832 some 400 to 600 tons of coal were obtained yearly from seven 
1) See furthermore: : 
JAPETUS STEENSTRUP: Congrès International d’Anthropologie et d’Archeologie 
préhistorique à Bruxelles session de 1872. 
JAPETUS STEENSTRUP: Matériaux pour l’histoire primitif et naturelle de l'Homme 
9th année 2nd ser. tome IV 2nd-LIV 1873, p. 65, plate 7. 
