ETHNOLOGY. 



329 



1;V. 



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is no evidence of it ; besides the river was then sufficiently narrow to 

 allow the use of the harpoon from its banks. 



gm The harpoon was a small dart of reindeer horn, very 



like the large barbed arrows, except that the barbs were 

 only on one side ; a slight protuberance at the base allowed 

 a cord to be attached, which was held in the hand of the 

 fisherman. (See Fig. 11.) It has been frequently, and is 

 still, confounded with the arrow. It is clear that an ar- 

 row barbed only on one side would be very defective in 

 §0 flight, as it describes a long curve; its course is uecessa- 

 (g rily affected by the resistance of the air which sustains it ; 

 « but in the short flight of the harpoon this inconvenience 

 rt is much less, and besides the direction of the harpoon is 

 ® downward, and it does not need to be sustained by the 

 ^ air. The instrument barbed only on one side is then not 

 -2 an arrow, and must be a harpoon. The use of its barbs 

 -§ was to catch and retain the fish after it was struck, but 

 "% why were they all upon one side "^ To diminish the width 

 .a of the dart so that it might penetrate more readily ? I 

 J cannot say.* 



° After hunting and fishing the troglodytes resorted to 

 g the caves for their meals. They carried with them en- 

 C tire the carcasses of the reindeer, and the smaller animals 



o 



d they had killed, but the larger animals, such as the horse 

 p, and the ox, were too heavy for transportation ; tbey 

 ^ were cut uj) where they fell, and only the head and limbs 

 were taken. This accounts for the fact that no bones 

 of the body of the large mammifers are found among the 

 residue of these feasts, while the skeletons of the reindeer 

 and of the smaller animals are complete. 



Throughout all these caves, wherever these broken 

 bones are found, there is always a large amount of char- 

 coal ; and this association is so general, so uniform, that 



* One of my colleagues of the French Association, M. Lecoq, of Boisbeaudran, in a 

 comnumication before the anthropological section, makes some very interesting re- 

 marks upon the mode of action of the unilateral barbs of the harpoon. While iiassing 

 through the air these barbs do not cause the harpoon to deviate perceptibly, but as 

 soon as it enters the water the unequal resistance it encounters must necessarily change 

 its direction. It would seem, then, that the fisherman who aimed straight for the fish 

 would miss it. Now, it is well known that a straight stick appears to be broken when 

 plunged obliquely in water ; in like manner, in consequence of the refraction of the 

 luminous rays, the image of the fish is displaced, and if direct aim was taken at this 

 imago it would also be missed. Here are, then, two causes of error. Now, it is evident 

 that if they can be brought to act in opposite directions they will counteract each 

 other, and M. Lecoq shows that when the barbed side is turned up the harpoon will reach 

 its destination. This arrangement of the harpoon was then intended to rectify its 

 course, which indicates great sagacity of observation in our troglodytes. 



The inhabitants of Terre-de-Fcu still use a harpoon barbed on one side onlv. (See 

 Fig. 13.) 



m 



