The people of this region are acquainted with few mineral substances,
excluding the metals which they obtain from the whites. The most
important are flint, slate, soapstone, jade, and a peculiar form of
massive pectolite, first described by Prof. F. W. Clarke[N93] from
specimens brought home by our party. Flint, ánma, was formerly in
great demand for arrow and spear heads and other implements, and
according to Dr. Simpson[N94] was obtained from the Nunatañmiun. It is
generally black or a slightly translucent gray, but we collected a
number of arrowheads, etc., made of jasper, red or variegated. A few
crystals of transparent quartz, sometimes smoky, were also seen, and
appeared to be used as amulets. Slate, ulu´ksɐ, “material for a round
knife,” was used, as its name imports, for making the woman’s round
knife, and for harpoon blades, etc. It is a smooth clay slate, varying
in hardness, and light green, red, purple, dark gray, or black in
color. All the pieces of soft gray soapstone, tună´ktɐ, which are so
common at both villages, are probably fragments of the lamps and
kettles obtained in former years from the eastern natives. The jade is
often very beautiful, varying from a pale or bright translucent green
to a dark olive, almost black, and was formerly used for making adzes,
whetstones, and occasionally other implements. The pectolite,
generally of a pale greenish or bluish color, was only found in the
form of oblong, more or less cylindrical masses, used as hammerheads.
Both of these minerals were called kau´dlo, and were said to come
“from the east, a long way off,” from high rocky ground, but all that
we could learn was very indefinite. Dr. Simpson was informed[N95] that
the stones for making whetstones were brought from the Kuwûk River, so
that this jade is probably the same as that which is said to form Jade
Mountain, in that region.
[Footnote N93: U.S. Geol. Surv., Bull. 9, p. 9, 1884.]
[Footnote N94: Op. cit., p. 266.]
[Footnote N95: Op. cit., p. 266.]
Bits of porphyry, syenite, and similar rocks are used for making
labrets, and large pebbles are used as hammers and net sinkers. They
have also a little iron pyrites, both massive and in the form of
spherical concretions. The latter were said to come from the mouth of
the Colville, and are believed by the natives to have fallen from the
sky. Two other kinds of stone are brought from the neighborhood of
Nu´ɐsŭknan, partly, it appears, as curiosities, and partly with some
ill defined mystical notions. The first are botryoidal masses of brown
limonite, resembling bog iron ore, and the other sort curious
concretions, looking like the familiar “clay stones,” but very heavy,
and apparently containing a great deal of iron pyrites. White gypsum,
used for rubbing the flesh side of deerskins, is obtained on the
seashore at a place called Tû´tyĕ, “one sleep” east from Point Barrow.
Bituminous coal, alu´a, is well known, though not used for fuel. Many
small fragments, which come perhaps from the vein at Cape
Beaufort,[N96] are picked up on the beach. Shaly, very bituminous
coal, broken into small square fragments, is rather abundant on the
bars of Kulugrua, whence specimens were brought by Capt. Herendeen.
A native of Wainwright Inlet gave us to understand that coal existed
in a regular vein near that place, and told a story of a burning hill
in that region. This may be a coal bed on fire, or possibly “smoking
cliffs,” like those seen by the _Investigator_ in Franklin Bay.[N97]
We also heard a story of a lake of tar or bitumen, ádngun, said to be
situated on an island a day’s sail east of the point. Blacklead,
mĭ´ñun, and red ocher are abundant and used as pigments, but we did
not learn where they were obtained. Pieces of amber are sometimes
found on the beach and are carried as amulets or (rarely) made into
beads. Amber is called aúmɐ, a word that in other Eskimo dialects, and
probably in this also, means “a live coal.” Its application to a lump
of amber is quite a striking figure of speech.
[Footnote N96: Hooper found coal on the beach at Nuwŭk in 1849,
showing that this coal has not necessarily been thrown over from
ships. Tents of the Tuski, p. 221.]
[Footnote N97: Discovery of the Northwest Passage, p. 100.]