Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/468
Men's Knives. The knife type very fully described by Wissler (p. 120, fig. 6–8), with slits in one or both edges, is here only represented by two fragments, one with one long slit in one edge, the other with slits in both edges. Pl. 78.9 (L 7576) is a knife handle of the type so familiar at Naujan with blade socket at the end and a suspension hole; it is of antler, has a row of notches in the edge to support the hand and is pierced by a large hole besides the suspension hole. Two other knife handles of this type have a unilateral knob at the rear end (like Wissler fig. 11 a); the smaller of the two, only 7.7 cm long, is pierced through the knob; the larger one, 11.5 cm long, has no hole; both are of antler. Another small knife handle of antler has Image missingFig. 101.Mattock Blade. Comers Midden. 1:3. no suspension hole either, but a small blade socket and round it a groove for a lashing; length 7.8 cm. All these knife handles have fairly narrow blade sockets, presumably for metal blades.
Pl. 78.10 (L 7579) is a peculiar handle, apparently for a knife too (of baleen?); it is of whalebone, at the fore end a large, deep blade slit; 0.4 cm wide, which extends further down one side than the other; the blade has been held in by two bone rivets which are still in position.
A cylindrical handle of whalebone, 9.6 cm long, 1.2 cm wide, slightly narrower at the fore end; a very thin blade socket at the fore end, with traces of rust, is apparently a hand drill.
A small adze head (L 7747, "Comer's Midden"), 11.3 cm long, of whalebone, more closely approaches Wissler fig. 19 c, but is more slender, more irregular and the two holes on the underside are closer together. Another specimen without more definite information as to where it was found is an unfinished, rather heavy adze handle of whalebone, as well as two mattock blades of whalebone; one is shown on fig. 101 (L 7754, "same settlement"); it is 1½–2 cm thick, with an edge at the fore end; on the underside can be seen marks worn by the handle; the other specimen is a fragment of a very similar mattock blade.