Page:Firemaking Apparatus in the U.S. National Museum.djvu/47

Rh Cape Vancouver is represented by a fine old hearth. This object has evidently been prized by its owner; it has had two rows of fire-holes (fig. 35), one row bored on the step in front of the first holes made; some of the holes are bored clear through. The reason why this was valued is, because the wood is so tindery that it is easy to make fire upon it.

Chalitmute, in the Kuskokwim region, on the northern side of the bay of that name, opposite Nunivak Island, is the next locality southward, to be considered. The parts of this set are exceptionally well-finished. The hearth is (pl., fig. 30) stepped. It has four holes prepared for use; on one, fire has been made. The drill is unusually thick. The mouth-piece has no teeth-grip, and there is no evidence that it was ever held in the mouth. It is intended to be held in the hand. This mouth-piece is set with an oval socket-stone of black obsidian, ground down into facets and polished. The cord handles are fine, large teeth of the sea lion. The centers of the circles so characteristic of Eskimo art, are inlaid with wood. The holes for the drill cord are narrow; they must have been dug through with a sharp, narrow instrument. As before remarked, this is the region where the hand rest is more used than the mouth-piece, and the bow is not used at all.

The fire-making set from the Togiak River, was collected in 1886, by Sergt. T. Applegate, of the U. S. Signal Corps. Kassianamute, from which village it comes, is in the Bristol Bay region, but this set has a different appearance from the former outfits (pl., fig. 37). The hearth is a block of wood worked out at one end into a handle. It is remarkable in having central holes not connecting, and with no connecting grooves. In this it closely resembles the block from East Greenland (fig. 25). This hearth is of soft, tindery wood, and doubtless when the holes became too deep to allow the powder to mass around the edge, the upper part of hearth was scarped down. The mouth-piece is large, and is in the form of a seal. It has only a shallow, crescentic teeth-grip; from the size of the mouth-piece, its shape, and the absence of a block to fasten between the teeth, it must have been nearly always held in the hand of one of the operators. It is set with a round pebble, mottled with green. The cord is a thong of rawhide with handles of wood.

The next locality is Koggiung, on the southern shore of Bristol Bay, near its head. Two sets are shown from this locality. From the hearths it will be seen that both fire-slots on the side and center holes are used here. These sets are called nŭ-tshŭn (fig. 38). The apparatus shown in figure 38 has the stepped hearth. Both drill and hearth apparently have been made for sale. The mouth-piece is a good one, set with a large socket-piece of a black stone with green mottlings. This stone is tolerably soft. It is much used by the Bristol Bay Eskimo for making labrets, etc. The teeth-grip is very shallow. The hearth