268 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



lenotli. It is alwaj's contrived so that when the head is struck; into 

 the animal the shaft is detached and acts as a drag. At Point Barrow 

 only the small form of dart is used. In ancient times a larger weapon, 

 witli I (ladder on the side of the shaft, was employed. All kinds of 

 marine animals are also pursued with toggle harpoons of the same 

 general type, but of different patterns for different animals. They are 

 divided into two classes, those intended for throwing and those which 

 are thrust with the hand. Both classes agree in having only the head 

 attached permanently to the line iitted loosely to the end of the shaft, 

 and arranged so that when struck into the animal it is detached from 

 the shaft and turns under the skin at right angles to the line. The 

 harpoons of this arctic Alaska.n area are then explained and figured in 

 great detail by Murdoch.^ 



The same writer says that before the introduction of iron it was 

 discovered that when the blade of the toggle harpoon is inserted par- 

 allel to the line hole the toggle head is less liable to pull out. At 

 any rate, b}' a kind of necessity, the blade part of the oldest forms is 

 transverse to the line hole. Also, b\' the exigencies of the broad 

 body of bone and ivory, the blade of the Amur and eastern Eskimo 

 regions is inserted parallel to the line hole. 



Late in the autumn, when the pack is driven toward the land by 

 the north wind, the ice forms rapidl3\ The hunters travel over it, 

 as soon as it will bear their weight, to look for the "alloos," or 

 breathing places, formed in the new ice when quite thin; this is gently 

 raised b}" the animal's head into a slight mound, and a small hole 

 opened with its nose and breath. These spots would escape notice 

 were it not for the congealing of the breath forming a little hummock 

 of hoar frost on the surface. It is this which reveals to the hunter an 

 "alloo," or breathing place of a seal. Every seal has not its own 

 breathing places, but more probably the instinct of the animal causes 

 it to form man}" when the ice is thin, and many are frozen up for 

 want of attention. Later in the season, as the ice grows thicker, it 

 floats higher, leaving a larger and longer air space beneath, as the 

 seal, when it visits the "alloo," scratches awa}" the ice on the under 

 side. 



B}' these places the hunter takes his position, and, for fear the seal 

 will catch the scent of his person, he carries a small three-legged stool 

 on which he squats, taking his position on the lee side of the seal 

 hole, watching and listening for the game. Of course he can not see 

 the seal, but if there is a little wind he can see the vapor of its breath 

 and hear the slight ripple in the water caused by the act of breathing. 



When the hunter discovers the presence of the seal, his spear is sent 

 crashing through the thin dome of ice into the animal, and so small 



' l^oint Barrow Expedition, 1892, pp. 218-240. 



