ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 235 



large opening. About the Great Lukes biirbed harpoon heads are 

 ph'ntiful, notched and pierced. 



C'hark^'oix describes the sturgeon spear of the Iroquois fishermen 

 on the (Treat Lakes. Two men go out in a canoe, one to paddle, the 

 other, in the bow, holding a barbed harpoon dart secured to the canoe 

 by a long cord. IngersoU compares this to the Columbia River stur- 

 geon chaser. The hook is like a gatf attached to a short wooden 

 socket fast to a line, the other end of which 'm tied to the canoe. The 

 operation of catching is described by Swan.' On the authority of 

 Dr. W. M. Beauchamp the barbed harpoon had a wide variation 

 among the Iroquois and the tribes on the Great Lakes. They are, as 

 regards their barbs, unilateral and bilateral, and as to the tang, notched, 

 bulbed, and pierced. The bilateral and sagittate forms are earlier and 

 in larger numbers. Recent Mohawk, Cayuga, and Seneca sites j'ield 

 large specimens. Both kinds are most plentiful at the inlet of Onon- 

 daga Lake, the outlet of Oneida Lake, and near Chaumont Bay, in 

 Jetferson County. At Brewerton more harpoon heads have been 

 found than in all the rest of New York and, perhaps, than all the 

 eastern United States. It is an excellent place for the work of the 

 harpoon. The large Iroijuois harpoon had onl}^ a short point. The 

 counties in New York yielding barbed harpoons are Jetferson, Mont- 

 gomery, Madison, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Livingston. They are 

 found in village sites and camps, rarety in graves, coming out of the 

 ashes, says Beauchamp, in fine order. 



Dr. Beauchamp has made a thorough studv of the bone harpoon 

 head in the Iroquois country in New York. The reader will have to con- 

 sult his Bulletin of the New York State Museum to appreciate the end- 

 less variety of forms carved out by this quick-minded race. There are 

 pierced, bulbed, and notched bases, unilateral and bilateral l)ar])s, wide 

 and narrow blades, single l)arbs and multiple barbs, long barbs and 

 siiort barbs, alternate and opposite barbs. One would require the 

 vocabulary of the botanist for leaves to define the shapes in Beau- 

 champ's figures. 



Josselj^n tells us that among^ the New England Indians bass and blue- 

 fish were taken in harbors and in the mouths of l)arred rivers, the fisher- 

 men being in canoes and striking the fish wuth a "fizgig,"' a kind of 

 dart or stafi', to the lower end of which was fastened a sharp, jagged 

 bone with a string to it. As soon as the fish was struck the hunter 

 pulled awa}- the stafl:', leaving the barbed head in the fish's body, and 

 fastened the other end of the string to the c-anoe. Thus they hauled 

 often as many as ten great fish to the shore. 



Sturgeon were taken in this way at night on the fishing banks, where 

 they were feeding upon small fishes called lances, sucking them out of 

 the sand. The Indian lighted a piece of dry birch bark and held it 



^Ernest Ingersoll, The Field, London, LXII, p. 413. 



