230 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, lillH). 



The implcinoiits used by the Makah Indians for (matching salmon were 

 a hook and a spear. The former is in size as large as a shark hook, 

 ha\ing a socket at one end formed of wood. These hooks are made 

 by the Indians from files and rasps, which they purchase of the traders, 

 and are forged into shape with ingenuity and skill. The socket is 

 made from the wild raspberr\' bush [Ruhus spectahllx)^ which, having 

 a pith in its center, is easily worked and is very strong. This socket 

 is formed of two parts, firmly secured to the hook by means of twine, 

 and the whole covered with a coat of pitch. Attached to this hook is 

 a strong cord about 3 feet long. A staff or pole from 18 to 20 feet 

 long, made from fir, is used, one end of which is fitted to the socket in 

 the hook, into which it is thrust, and the cord firmly tied to the pole. 

 When the hook is fastened into a salmon it slips off' the pole and the 

 fish is held by the cord, which enables it to perform its antics without 

 breaking the staff", which it would be sure to do if the hook were firmly 

 fastened.^ 



Giglioli figures a barbed harpoon head (Kaheita), made of whale's 

 bone, brought from Nutka by Captain Cook, and now in the Natural 

 History Museum of Florence. It has two barbs on one side and is 

 attached to a line 10 mm. thick, served with twine." This most inter- 

 esting object, 10 inches long, reduces the harpoon head to its lowest 

 terms. It reminds the student of the Fuegian type, or, better, of the 

 universal American fundamental barbed type. At the base orjoint — 

 and this is one of the crucial points for invention — there is merely 

 the rudest kind of pivot to fit into the socket at the end of the 

 shaft. There is no perforation, or even bulb, to hold the line. The 

 shank is simply ha<^ked to make it rough. Some old pieces in the 

 U. S. National Museum, of bone, antler, iron, and copper, collected by 

 Gibbs, McLean, and Fisher, have from one to four barbs on one side, 

 and have line holes or projections for the end of the connecting line. 



Ellis says that the Nutka (Wakashan) Indians had two kinds of 

 harpoons — one of bone, the other of shell. The former — that is, the 

 barbed head — is 6 inches long, pointed, having barbs on one side. Of 

 the one with the shell blade, the butt end is "so contrived by means 

 of a socket as to fix upon a pole 10 feet in length. The shaft is forked 

 at the end, so that two pieces of the bone are to be fixed on at the 

 same time." To the shank of the barb a strong line is attached, to the 

 other end of which is fastened a seal skin, blown up. The float is said 

 to prevent the animal from keeping under water. It was dispatched 

 with the lance.'' This corresponds precisely with the specimens in 

 the National Museum collected by Swan in recent times. In one of 

 his examples the mussel shell, ground to a razor edge, forms the 



' James G. Swan, Northwest Coast, New York, 1857, pp. 40 and 41. 

 '^ Appunti intorno ad una eollezione, etc., Florence, 1895, p. 131, pi. iii. 

 •' Ellis, An Authentic Narrative, I, p. 221. 



