Page:Firemaking Apparatus in the U.S. National Museum.djvu/62

 574 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. Fig. 45.— 1. Tinder Pocket. 2. Fiue Bao. (Part of Strike-a-light set). (Cat. No. 128405, U. S. N. M. Mi.ckenzie Uner District, B. C lected tiy K. V. Heremleen. ) he assigned the specimen to this locality on the evidence. Mr. John Murdoch has, with a great deal of probabilit3, questioned this and thinks that it came from Herscljel Island with the rest of Mr. Herendeen's collec- tion and did not come from as far east as Cape Bathurst. While there is no improbability that this method is practiced at Cape Bathurst, yet the specimen has the appearance of the Mac- kenzie Kiver strike- a- lights, hence it is deemed advisable to locate it in the Mackenzie River district at Herschel Island. The essential parts of the ap- paratus are a piece of pyrites, a piece of flint and tinder. In the more northern parts of the Eskimo area, tinder is made from the down from the stems and catkins of various species of dwarf arctic willows. At present the natives often soak the tinder in a strong solution of gunpowder and water to make it quick; an older way was to mix powdered charcoal with it. This plan is like the charring of the linen rags used in the old-fashioned tinder boxes of forty years ago. The Eskimo then puts the tinder into a little round, flat pouch, with a flap in the middle (fig. 45, 1). The pyrites (fig. 4G, 3) looks like a short pestle, too much of which appearance the repeated scraping has no doubt given rise. The up- per end is concave, while the lower end has the original smooth sur- face of the concretion. Pyrite is found at .Point Barrow in spher- ical masses of various sizes up to several pounds in weight. These spheres are nearly always ci'acked in two and scraped on the plauo ^ou r r" y Fijj. 46. ;!. rviUTE.s. 4, 4a. FUNT SxiilKEK AND Handle. (Part of Strike-a- light set.) (Cat. No. 128-105, U. .S. N. M. Mackenzie River District, B. C. Collected by E P. flerendeen. )