242 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



this specimen, as on many other floats, little holes were stopped by studs 

 of wood or hard animal substance, set in when the hide was green, which, 

 shrinking, rendei's the joint perfectly tight. As mentioned, into the 

 puckered neck of the float was knotted a bend or loop 6 inches long. 

 This would serve as a handle and be inseparable from the float. A 

 stout piece of rawhide line, 3 or 4 feet long, was bent to form a loop 

 at each end. Into one loop the float-loop was spliced, and into the one 

 on the other end of the line the toggle of the harpoon line hooks. The 

 bends in the ends of the short float line are seized down by means of 

 sinew braid in half hitches. The float is always associated with the 

 kaiak, and therefore it has attachments for it, as well as for the line. 

 In the end of the float, where the float loop is fastened, and on either 

 side of the latter, two short rawhide lines are inserted and made fast 

 on the inside. These short pieces are run into the ends of a device,, 

 made from two pieces of antler, for slipping under one of the cross 

 lines on the deck of the kaiak. For this purpose a hole was bored up 

 in the end of each one of these pieces 1 inch, met by a hole bored half 

 way in at the side, and half an inch above another hole was bored quite 

 through. The line from the float is drawn up the hole at the end, out 

 at the meeting hole, and through the upper hole, where it is fastened 

 with a peg, the two holes being united on the outside by a countersink 

 to prevent abrasion by ice. A wooden peg wedges the line fast in the 

 inner hole. The two front ends of the pieces of antler are united by 

 an iron rivet. These details are mentioned to call attention to the 

 cunning makeshifts of savages working with the poorest tools. The 

 maxim, "Where there's a will there's a way," is quite true among the 

 Eskimo. 



The shaft is a typical Greenland form and consists of loose shaft 

 and rawhide hinge or connecting line, foreshaft, shaft, and "feathers." 



The loose shaft is an elongated cone of ivory 7i inches in length, 

 having at a distance of 1 inch from the butt a raised ornament of 

 rings and bands turned as in a lathe, the middle band with cross ridges. 

 Two holes arc ])ored, one above the other, through this ornament, and 

 three holes through the fore end of the wooden shaft for the rawhide 

 thong that forms the elastic joint between loose shaft and foreshaft. 

 This thong is doubled at its widest end and the wholeMrawn through 

 one of the shaft holes, not tightly ; it passes (1) through the lower hole 

 of the loose shaft, (2) back through a hole in the shaft, (3) up through 

 the outer hole in the loose shaft, (4) back through the loop in the first 

 end, then through the third hole of the shaft and once wrapped around, 

 the end being tucked under as in making a single knot after the whole 

 is drawn as tight as possible. 



The l)ase of the loose shaft is squared ofl' and socketed. The fore- 

 shaft is only half an inch long, but forms an ellipse 1^ by li inches in 

 diameter. It has a pivot or projection on top to fit into the socket of 



