224 rp:p()KT ok national muskum, iduo. 



two barbs laid alotiosido. lashed down, and coverod with pitch. (Fio-. 

 17.) In th(> same lashing is included one end of the leader, a short 

 strap of deer rawhide. Into a slit at the other end is spliced the line, 

 a piece of rope from 1 to 3 feet lonof, attached at its opposite end to 

 the side of the shaft. Some spears have two or more prongs, each 

 armed with one of these toggle heads. When the fish is struck its 

 struggles detach the toggle head and it is retrieved })y means of tlic 

 line and pole. Toggle heads of similar type are in use among all the 

 salmon-eating Indians of porthwest California.^ 



In the figure shown will be seen the transition of the rankling arrow 

 head of South America into a toggle head. There must be point, barbs, 

 or spurs, line attached between ends, and socket in every harpoon. 

 In this noteworthj' type the point and the flukes or barbs are separate, 

 and the socket is ingeniousl}^ effected b}^ the combination of point, 

 spurs, and rawhide leader. 



The spring salmon, says Gibbs. are taken on the rivers Sacramento, 

 Klamath, Columbia, and Kwinaiutl with a harpoon, the points or 

 barbs attached looselj^ by a thong, so as to give play to the fish. On 

 some of the rivers, where the depth permits, weirs are built to stop 

 their ascent." 



The relationship of weirs, dams, and slops of various kinds with the 

 harpoon may be mentioned in this connection, since the California 

 and Oregon tribes, barred out from ocean fishing by absence of archi- 

 pelagoes, were compelled to invent equivalents. The old-time harpoon 

 was even then ade(]uate. but engineering schemes were stimulated and 

 so the intellect was quickened. The cooperative results in dam build- 

 ing,, strengthening as they did the social tie, are not to he despised. 

 Indeed, Powers, who knew those tribes half a century ago, has much 

 to say about their manliness and resource, both in fishing and hunting. 

 The same will l)e found true not only on the Atlantic side of the United 

 States but on both sides of South America. 



It must not be overlooked that the Pacific Ocean all along the 

 Mexican and Californian coast was no friend to the canoe. Fishing 

 was done inland. The coastal plain, indeed, was the pasture land of 

 vast nmrine herds that needed no shepherds, but at the proper season 

 thej^ rounded themselves up and proceeded into the various open 

 streams to their spawning grounds, where they were slaughtered with- 

 out mercy and in such way as to awaken little thought in the minds of 

 their captors. 



Cat. No. 131358 in the U. S. National Museum is a barbed head of 

 a harpoon from the Nal-tunne-tunne Indians, Oregon, collected ])V liev. 

 J. Owen Dorse}', consisting of an iron arrow head with long sharp barbs 

 on each side and a wdoden shank barb piece having two unilateral 



1 Smithsonian Report, 1886, Pt. I, p. 224, pi. xix, fig. 80. 



^Guoige Ciihbs, Contributions to North American Etlinology, 1877, I, p. 195. 



