132 Dr King on the Industrial Arts of the Esquimaux, 



Esquimaux of Regent Inlet, describes the trident spear, *' be- 

 cause it was different from any of which he had read." Now 

 Sir Martin Frobisher has accurately described this spear, 

 comparing it to ** our toasting irons, but longer,'' as well as 

 Captain Lyon ; and it is difficult to understand that the latter 

 gallant officer's admirable description could have escaped 

 Sir John Ross*s attention. When employed for striking 

 birds, to give these spears additional velocity, a throwing- 

 stick is used, which is constructed of a flat board of about 

 eighteen inches long, having a groove to receive the staff, 

 two others, and a hole for the fingers and thumb, and a small 

 spike fitted for a hole in the end of the staff. Mr Henry Ellis 

 has figured this singular instrument, and specimens of it were 

 brought home by Captain Billings and Lieutenant Chappell. 

 The sling is in use amongst the natives of Labrador,* Hud- 

 son Straits,! and the Great Fish River Estuary^ and is very 

 destructive in the hands of an Esquimaux, who directs it with 

 great force and unerring aim. Amongst the minor imple- 

 ments of the chase are, their fish-hooks, consisting only of 

 a nail, crooked and pointed at one end, the other being let 

 into a piece of ivory to which the line is attached ; a piece of 

 deer's horn or curved bone, only a foot long, used as a rod ; 

 a long bone-feeler for plumbing any cracks in the ice through 

 which seals are suspected of breathing, and also for trying 

 the safety of the road ; as a float, a most delicate little rod of 

 bone or ivory, of the thickness of a fine knitting needle, and 

 about a foot long, having at the lower end a small knob, and 

 at the upper a fine piece of sinew tied to it, so as to fasten 

 it loosely to the side of the hole ; small ivory pegs or pins to 

 stop the holes made by the spears in the animal's body, in 

 order that the blood, a great luxury to the natives, may be 

 saved ; and an instrument, shaped something like a shoe-horn, 

 with four holes at the small end, communicating with a trough 

 that extends along the middle, and widens as it nears the 

 broad part. This is used to procure blood from the dying 

 animal, by inserting the end with the holes into the wound. 



* Frobisher. f Ellis. + King. 



