The fuel in the glass bowl most likely enters from the center hole and exits from the outside hole, so that surplus crud ends up visible in the glass bowl, rather than underneath the filter screen. The filter is in between the two holes. AFAIK there were two usual types of filter for glass bowls on cars: in the later days, a paper one that just about took up the whole bowl space, and in the early days, a flat ceramic one that had a hole in the center. Normally the glass bowl hung underneath the metal part, and acted as a sediment bowl. For some reason yours is upside down, but on a chainsaw there isn't really an up and a down, they are used in all positions.
Being on a chainsaw rather than a car, your bowl probably used fine brass mesh rather than a ceramic filter element. It may have just been a circular screen, held down by the rubber washer, with a hole in the center for the fuel entry port.
