258 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



Hudson Bay have no other method of catching fish, unless it be bj^ 

 spears and darts; for no appearance of nets was discovered either at 

 their tents or on any part of the shore. This is the case with all the 

 Eskimo on the west side of Hudson Bay; spearing in summer and an- 

 gling in winter are the only methods they have yet devised to catch fish, 

 though at times their whole dependence for support is on that article.* 



HARPOONS OF THE CENTRAL ESKIMO. 



Coming to the central Eskimo, Boas says of them that thc}^ inhabit 

 the northeastern part of the continent and the eastern islands of the 

 Arctic- American archipelago. In Smith Sound they inhabit the most 

 northern countries visited by man, and their remains are often found 

 at its northern outlet. The southern and western boundaries are the 

 countries about Fort Churchill, the middle part of Back River, and 

 the coast west of Adelaide Peninsula.^ In this monograph will be 

 found an excellent bibliography of that area, which has been famous 

 in historic times for the efforts made there to find the northwest pas- 

 sage between the two great oceans. 



The harpoon or principal lance (unahk, Kane) of the Eskimo is 

 attached to the sealing line. The rod or staff is divided at right angles 

 in two pieces, which are neatly jointed or hinged with tendon strips, 

 but so braced by the manner in which the tendon is made to cross and 

 bind in the lashing that, except when the two parts are severed by 

 lateral pressure, they form but a single shaft. The point, generally an 

 arrow-head of bone, has a socket to receive the end of the shaft; it dis- 

 engages itself readily from its place, but still remains fast to the line. 

 Thus when the kaiaker has struck his prej^, the shaft escapes the risk 

 of breaking from a pull against the grain by bending at the joint, and 

 the point is carried free by the animal as he dives. At the right cen- 

 ter of gravity of the harpoon, that point at which a cudgel pla3^er 

 would grasp his staff, a neatl}^ arranged cestus or holder (noon-sok) 

 fits itself on the shaft. It serves to give the kaiaker a good grip when 

 casting his weapon, but slides off from it and is left in the hand at the 

 moment of drawing back his arm.^ 



In the weapons used for killing their game there is considerable 

 variety, according to the animal they are pursuing. The most simple 

 of these weapons is the "oonak" (Parry), which they use only for 

 killing the small seal. It consists of a light staff of wood 4 feet in 

 length, having at one end the point of a narwhal's horn, from 8 to 10 

 inches long, firmly secured by rivets and wooldings; at the other end 

 is a smaller and less effective point of the same kind. To prevent 

 losing the ivory part, in case of the wood breaking, a stout thong 



^Hearne, Journey, etc., London, 1795, p. 159. 



=" Franz Boas, The Central Eskimo, 1888, p. 414. 



»E. K. Kane, The Grinnell Expedition, New York, 1854, pp. 478 and 479. 



