200 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 19(X». 



feet; in thickness, from one-fourtli of an inch to more than one inch. 

 Its front end may he fitted to a foreshaft, ))ut in the most primitive 

 exampU^s there is a rude split or a mere cavity duo- for the tang of the 

 barl). The maiuial or inner end of the shaft varies in form, being 

 either tapering and without function, or fitted to receive the hook of 

 a throwing stick, or notched for a bowstring, or having an ice pick 

 of hard material secureh' fastened to it.' When not projected from a 

 throwing stick or shot from a bow the barbed harpoon is held in or 

 hurled from the hand. In that event hand rests or offsets are lashed 

 to the shaft near the center of gravity.^ 



Connecting line. — The connecting line of a barbed harpoon at tirst 

 was only a ])it of string or thong uniting the head to the shaft. If 

 there be no connecting line between head and shaft, the weapon is 

 called a rankling arrow, because the head stays in the animal and 

 causes death. However, the rude Fuegian inventors have gotten 

 beyond that, for the thong is carried halfway down the shaft and 

 made fast here and there with knots. The same happy thought is 

 called by Murdoch an "assembling line," since it serves in case of a 

 break in the shaft to save the pieces. In the larger harpoons and the 

 more delicate ones the assembling line is a separate affair. The line 

 of the more complicated barbed harpoons is fastened at one end through 

 the line hole of the head. The other end is bifurcated, like the martin- 

 gale of a bridle, or a kite string. One end of this martingale is tied to 

 the shaft near the foreshaft, the other near the butt end of the shaft. 

 When the harpoon is ready to be hurled the line is neatly rolled ou 

 the shaft, the head is placed in its socket, and a slipknot around the 

 shaft takes the slack in the line. When the game is struck the head is 

 pulled from its socket, the slipknot is released, and the line unrolls. 

 The foreshaft being of bone, drops lowest in the water, so that the 

 shaft acts as a drag. It serves also as a Imoy, since the upper end, 

 especialh" when feathered, bobs about over the water and shows the 

 position of the game. 



The feathering of the barbed harpoon is that of the arrow. Look- 

 ing at this characteristic from the southward, the occurrence of feath- 

 ers on the shafts of harpoons in lower Bering Sea is not abnormal. 

 The float of the barbed harpoon is a small inflated bladder, stomach, 

 or intestine attached to the side of the shaft, helping to keep the latter 

 erect in the water. These structural elements are nuich more highly 

 developed in the toggle series now to be studied. The barbed harpoon 

 is of especial interest to the archaeologist, who finds heads of bone or 

 antler with holes and knobs or grooves for attaching the connecting line 

 and every variety of barb, in both shell heaps and cemeteries through- 

 out Canada and the United States. 



'The Eskimo about Bering Strait, 1899, pi. liv and i.v. 

 ^Idem., pi. XLVii h, fig.s. 31-32. 



