ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 227 



\ out its (living down to uny great depth. After having a num))or of 

 thes(> joined to it tlic animal is unable to (|uit the surface and is tinall\ 

 captured. 



All those whose sealskin floats are attached to the animal now divide 

 the booty. Those who are entitled to a shai-e are easily known, for 

 each float has a different pattern printed upon it.' 



From Vancouver Island around the interminable coasts of North 

 America to eastern Greenland the float is only in a few places absent 

 from the harpoon in some form. It may be, as in this example, the 

 hide of an immense seal, perhaps of a smaller seal, elsewhere a bladder 

 or intestine inflaied. On the coast of British Columbia, in the absence 

 of sealskins, the unconquerable genius of invention substitutes a large 

 bag or wallet of cedar bark, and the Labrador Eskimo attaches a bit 

 of plank to the butt end of his harpoon shaft. The motive is the same. 

 A huge animal, to be captured, must not only be stabbed, but held 

 back b}" an unwearying device which takes the place of the hunter's 

 hand and arm. 



The Makah, living on the northwestern point of Washington State, 

 pursue the whale in their dugout canoes. On one occasion, says 

 George Giblrs, a canoe was gone five days. Their tackle consists of a 

 harpoon, the point formerly edged with shell, now usually with cop- 

 per, very firmly secured to a line and attached lightly to a shaft about 

 15 feet long, to which, also the line is made fast; a sealskin float is 

 attached to another line and serves to buoy the whale when struck. 

 The scene of the capture is described by eyewitnesses as very excit- 

 ing, ten canoes being sometimes engaged, the crews yelling and dash- 

 ing their paddles with frantic eagerness. When taken, the whale, 

 buoyed up with floats, is towed in triumph to the village and cut up.^ 



The Makahs belong to the Wakashan family, whose chief abode is 

 on the outer side of Vancouver Island. They are the Nutkas of Cap- 

 tain Cook and of the early explorers. But in this comiection they are 

 at the gatewa}- of the North Pacific archipelago, where, after a lone- 

 some search stretching from Magellan Sti'aits, the student encounters 

 the Caribs of the west. One after another Wakashan. Salishan. Ilai- 

 dah, or Skiddegatan and Tlinket, or Koloschan come out to meet him 

 in their graceful dugouts of cedar. 



The ]Makah whaling harpoon consists of a barbed head, to which is 

 attached a rope or lanyard, always of the same length, about 5 fathoms, 

 or 80 feet. This lanyard is made of whale's sinews twisted into a rope 

 about an inch and a half in circumference and covered with twine 

 wound around it very tightlv, called by sailors "serving." 



The harpoon head is a flat piece of iron or copper, usually a saw 

 blade or a piece of sheet copper, to which a couple of barbs made of 



"("liarles Wilkes, Exj)l()riiig Expedition, IV, p. 486. 



- Cieoiije ( Jiljl)s, Coiitrilmtiims to Nortli American Ethnoloiiy, 1 S77, I, }). 11 



