ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



263 



cut away economically at every point, so as to protect the line from 

 abrasion. There is no separate becket, but the end of the line is 

 spliced into itself to form a loop. 



No. 25554 is similar to the foregoing in most respects. The outline 

 is a little more artistic, but the general form and functioning of the 

 parts are precisely the same. Length of blade, 2i inches; length of 

 body, 6 inches. 



Plate 7 is a typical broad toggle harpoon head (Cat. No. 34064, 

 U.S.N.M.) from Cumberland Sound. The ivor}^ body is Ungulate in 

 outline, nearly flat on the back, and rounded beneath for line hole and 

 socket. Blade triangular, oblong, set 1 inch 

 into the saw cut, and held in place by a large 

 copper rivet. No blade hole is present. Line 

 hole well back, large, bent up a little, and run- 

 ning into very deep line grooves. Socket wide 

 and shallow. Barbs, two, formed by the bifur- 

 cation of the back. Butt end curved in and 

 somewhat gouged out. Length, 5f inches. 

 Collected by Ludwig Kumlein. The head fits 

 back downward into a cover carved of a piece 

 of pine wood. The point lies under two loops 

 of baleen passed through the wood and f rapped. 

 A rawhide thong fastened into the butt serves 

 to wrap the toggle and cover together. Other 

 specimens in the Museum, collected in the same 

 locality b}' Mr. Kumlein, have precisely the 

 same characteristics. The specimens are more 

 slender. It will be noted that the blade, the 

 barbs, or spurs at the base, and the bottom or 

 inside of the line hole are in parallel planes. 

 This is to be regarded as the old or primitive 

 style. In the more modern heads, as will be 

 seen, the line hole is perpendicular to the plane 

 of the blade. Front and side views of a large 

 toggle head from the Amur are given to show how the old type sur- 

 vives in out-of-the-way places far apart, while the new type holds the 

 intermediate localities. (Schrenck, Plate 42.) 



The head of a whale lance (Cat. No. 34067, U.S.N.M.) from Cum- 

 berland Gulf, collected by Ludwig Kumlein, is shown in fig. 56. The 

 body is of ivor}', in the form of a flattened conoid. The blade of iron 

 is leaf-shaped, set into a saw cut at the point in the plane of the widest 

 diameter of the head, and held in place by a bi-ass rivet. The shaft 

 socket is a deep cone. On either side of the head a line hole is made 

 by two borings, one vertical and the other horizontal and larger. Into 

 each a line or thong of seal hide is drawn, with a knot on the upper 



Fig. 56. 

 HEAD OF WHAL.K LANCE. 



Cumberland Sound. 



Collected by L. Kumlelu. Cat. No. 

 34067, U.S.N.M. 



