212 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



shaped in form, the butt ends crossing- and hished to the handle a little 

 al)Ove the lower ends, which rest underneath a short ])it of wood or 

 across the spoon at either end by means of a rawhide thong-. The 

 examples of this apparatus are iigured in Nelson, Murdoch, and Boas. 

 Among the accessories to the harpoon, the throwing- stick or board, 

 called atlatl b}'^ the Mexicans, must not be omitted. True, the cun- 

 ning device was used all around the 

 Pacilic Ocean and across the Arctic 

 for projecting- spears as well as har- 

 poons, and there are other methods 

 of using- the harpoon effectively; 

 but the elaboration of the atlatl 

 throughout was greatly stimulated 

 by association with the harpoon. 

 The proper discussion and illustra- 

 tion of this accessory, however, 

 would far exceed the limitations of 

 this article, and will therefore be 

 reserved for a separate paper, A 

 map showing- the distribution of the 

 atlatl in the Western Hemisphere 

 would 1)6 marked on Greenland, 

 Lal)rador, Baffin Land, Mackenzie 

 River, all al)out Alaska to British 

 Columbia, Santa Barbara, cliff 

 dwellings of the Colorado, through- 

 out Mexico, Central America, Flor- 

 ida, Coloml)ia, the Orinoco, and the 

 Amazon on several of its great trib- 

 utaries, especially in the Mato 

 Grosso. 



Fig. 11. 



ICE SCOOPS. 



Amur River and Bristol Bay. 



Collected by E. W. Nelson; a, after Schrenk; (), Cat. 



No. IJVJO'J, U.S.N.M. 



SOUTH AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



The continent of South America 

 was not favorable to the harpoon. 

 Most of its shores descend at once 

 into the inhospitable deep sea. Ex- 

 cept at its narrow and bleak coast southward, animals best captured 

 with the harpoon did not abound. Inland there were pampas and for- 

 ests, better suited to bolas, spears, slings, ])low tubes, and the bow. 

 It is in the Straits of Magellan, on the west coast, and in the open 

 waters of the great rivers that a rude barbed harpoon and excellent 

 harpoon arrows existed. Nor can the thought be slighted that outside 

 of the favored Cordilleras, the luxuriance of nature overpowered the 

 inventive faculty, which indeed is developed among difficulties so long 



