In the line of utensils, the Eskimo lamp, is, perhaps, one of the most important and unique.[242] No other Amerinds had anything of the kind. It was a necessity with the Eskimo, while tribes living in wooded regions would have no use for it. They could obtain light from camp-fires, especially with the addition of pitch pine. But the Eskimo lamp is primarily a heating apparatus. What need then for Amerinds, who had wood, to bother with a lamp, for which oil must be prepared? Besides this consideration was the one of cleanliness, for the lamp is very dirty, and even Amerinds have standards. “Far more remarkable than being the unique possessors of the lamp in the Western Hemisphere,” says Hough, “the Eskimo present the spectacle of a people depending for their very existence upon this household belonging. Indeed, it is a startling conclusion that the lamp has determined the occupancy of an otherwise uninhabitable region by the Eskimo, or, in other words, the distribution of a race.”[243] When fuel can be obtained, which is the case often in summer, fires are used instead of the lamp. This fuel is peat, grass, driftwood, or shrubs. The lamp is generally of soapstone, though some have been made of clay, earthenware, bone, or wood. The usual shape is something like a clam shell, though they are sometimes oval or pear-shaped, or round. They are modified in form according to the use required of them, the traveller’s lamp being much smaller necessarily than the ordinary lamp of the iglu. The lamps vary in length from two or three inches to about two feet, and in width from one half inch to nine or ten inches, while the height is from less than an inch to four or five. The smallest specimens are toy lamps of the children, and the next in size the traveller’s lamp. Small lamps are often balanced but the large ones are not, but are supported by a wooden block or by pegs of wood or bone stuck into the snow. The shallow hollow of the lamp is filled with seal oil, which is obtained in winter by freezing the blubber, when the oil can easily be extracted by beating; in summer often by chewing it out. The wick is of moss and is arranged along the wide side of the lamp. It has to be trimmed frequently, but when kept in good order gives a bright illumination which Schwatka declared to be “certainly equal to the light from three or four kerosene lamps.” The oil is kept in sealskins, which are made into bottles by sewing, and the comfort and cheerfulness of the iglu during the long night depend on the stock of oil which the family has been able to secure. The farther north, the larger the lamp, because the darkness is longer and the cold greater. _Vice versa_, southward it finally disappears. [Illustration: STONE HOUSE-LAMP, POINT BARROW, ALASKA. 3 in. to 2 ft. in length ]