ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 267 



mens, b}^ a thong of rawhide. This ingenious joint is most effective 

 as a universal hinge. It can be easily unloosed and made tighter. 

 By a universal hinge it is meant that in every direction the loose shaft 

 is sustained in a line with the shaft b}' the rigidit}" of the rawhide, 

 which is not so strong, however, but that when an extraordinary strain 

 is placed upon the loose shaft the rawhide will give way in any direction 

 and allow the pivot to come out of the socket and save the apparatus 

 from breakage. No long line is used with this form of apparatus. A 

 similar specimen is figured from the Berlin Ethnological ]\Iuseum, by 

 Dr. Franz Boas.^ Length of shaft, 43 inches; loose shaft, 16 inches. 

 The harpoon of the Cumberland area, as shown bj^ the previous 

 descriptions and illustrations, is far more primitive and less affected by 

 contact with Europe than that of Greenland or Hudson Bay type. In 

 closing a study of this region attention is called to fig. 61, Catalogue 

 No. 19521 in the U . S. National Museum. It can not certainly be defined 

 as a barbed head, nor as a toggle head. It has the form of the toggle 

 head, but the line hole, instead of passing through the bod}" above the 

 socket, is a perforation in the end of the spur. A hole has been bored 

 through this end in a line parallel to the axis of the Ijod}' and is met 

 by another perforation on the side of the spur. The connecting line 

 evidently passed up through this opening and was toggled b}- means 

 of an Eskimo knot formed by cutting a slot near the end of the thong 

 and turning the end back through the slit. The socket does not differ 

 from that of other harpoons. The head, however, is a large and lan- 

 ceolate blade of chipped stone, reminding one of the whale lance blades 

 brought home by Ray from Point Barrow and described l)y Murdoch. 

 The tang of this blade fits upon an offset at the end of the body and is 

 held in place b}" a knot, also of sinew braid. The perforation in the 

 spur for the connecting line is almost unique in the collections of the 

 U. S. National Museum. One other specimen has a perforation at 

 this point, fig. 52, Catalogue No. 8279. In this specimen, however, 

 the perforation seems to have no function, since through the body 

 of the toggle head there is a regular line hole with line grooves. 



HARPOONS OF ARCTIC ALASKA. 



The situation, the climate, the people, and the natural resources of 

 this area are miimtely set forth by Murdoch. The harpoon, as will 

 be seen, is related to all these. In his treatise on Point Barrow Eskimo 

 the last-named writer describes and figures both seal darts and toggle 

 harpoons, and these are included in our subject. He says that the 

 Eskimo use. to capture the smaller marine animals, a dart or small 

 harpoon having a loose barbed head of bone fitted into a socket at the 

 end of the shaft, to which it is attached In' a line of greater or less 



^ Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 496, fig. 432. 



