Page:Firemaking Apparatus in the U.S. National Museum.djvu/10

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The Klamaths, of Oregon, of the Lutuamiau stock, use a tire apparatus that looks very much like that of the Utes. The hearth is a rounded piece of soft wood thin ned down at the ends (fig. 4). The drill is a long, round arrow-stick, with a hard-wood point set in with resin and served with sinew (see Ute drill, fig. 7). The holes in this hearth are very small, being less than three-eighths of an inch in diameter. They are in the center, and the fire slot being cut into the rounded edge widens out below, so that the coal can dropdown and get draught. The wood is quite soft, apparently being sap-wood of yew or cedar, while the drill point is of the hardest wood obtainable. It is probable that sand is used on the drill. The hearth is 13 inches long, and the drill 26.

The Chinooks, a tribe of Indians of a separate stock, called Chi- nookan, formerly lived about the mouth of the Columbia River, in Oregon, but are now nearly ex- tinct. Hon. James G. Swan, the veteran explorer, investigator, and collector among the Northwest coast tribes, says that the Chi- nooks are the best wet- weather fire-makers he ever knew.

To kindle a fire the Chinook twirls rapidly between the palms a cedar stick, the point of which is pressed into a small hollow in a flat piece of the same material, the sparks falling on finely frayed bark. Sticks are commonly carried for the purpose, improving with use.

Mr. Paul Kane I describes the hearth as a " flat piece of dry cedar,