210 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



Fig. s. 



SEAi-INU STOOI,. 



Point Barrow, Alaska. 



S'.)SS7. U.S.N.M. 



roMwtefl by 1>. H. Hu.y. Cat. N 

 .Aftt'i-.Ioliii Murtlc 



quently he has to stand for hours motionless on the ice.^ Murdoch 



makes the important state- 

 ment that this device is 

 not found elsewhere save 

 at the Mackenzie mouth 

 and in arctic Alaska (Rob- 

 ert MacFarlane's notes). 

 E^ede describes and fig- 

 ures a " sort of one-legged 

 chair and a footstool." 

 Also Cranz (fig. SI). 



Cat. No. 3875-1: (fig. 9) is 

 an apparatus for joining 

 the two parts of a har- 

 poon line; it may be the 

 leader attached to the line 

 hole through the head or 

 it may V)e on an extra line 

 used to lengthen the dis- 

 tance between the head 



and the float. A collection of these fi'om different areas would form 



an interesting study. The extreme 



cold of the region, stiffening the line 



and freezing the hands of the fisher- 

 man, makes it necessary to have some 



device which renders the rapid ship- 

 ping and unshipping of the line cer- 

 tain and easy. In the example here 



shown the detacher is carved in the 



shape of a seal's head. The leader 



passes througli the hole drilled in the 



neck of the animal, while the line to be 



attached is looped and pushed through 



the mouth of the seal, around a stud 



on top of the head, and hooked. While 



this attachment is secure enough where 



there is a steady strain, the hunter has 



only to push the loop backward, when 



it relieves itself from the button oi' stud 



and can easily be withdrawn. Especial 



attention is called in this example to 



the neatness with which the frapping 



is done on the rawhide thongs, the 



whale carved on the under side of the 



Fig. 9. 



LINE DETACHER. 



St. Michael, Alaska. 

 Collected by E. W. Nelson. Cat. No. 38754. 



U.S.N.M. 



Point Barrow Expedition, 1892, p. 255, fig. 256. 



