ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



277 



A bone harpoon head (Cat. No. 89337, U.S.N.M.) from Point Bar- 

 row is shown in fig. 72. It marks a step in the transition from 

 barbed head to toggle in that the barbs are absent; a slot on each 

 margin of the body marks the places where thej^ might have been 

 inserted. The line hole is transverse to the blade. The barb of the 

 toggle head is four-pronged and sits awry with reference to the blade. 

 Length. ^ inches. Collected by P. H. Ray, U. S. A.^ 



A combined barbed and toggle harpoon head (Cat. No. S937T.U. S. N. M. ) 

 from Point Barrow, rhomboidal in section, conoidal behind the barbs, 

 bod}^ all in one piece, of bone or antler, long, slender, tapering from 

 butt to point like a lance blade, is shown in fig. 73. 

 When the line hole is horizontal the blade is vertical. 

 The line hole is a small round perforation. Line 

 grooves, narrow; furrows, uniform. 



There were at one time, possibh', barbs on the mar- 

 gins of the blade, for there exists on each, at a distance 

 of 2 inches back from the point, a groove seven-eighths 

 inch long, three-eighths inch deep, and less than one- 

 eighth inch wide, undercut in front. Into this groove 

 or slat could have been inserted marginal barbs of bone, 

 or perhaps of stone. The barb at the butt end is made 

 up of a series of four-lobed projections of difierent 

 lengths. 



The socket is a squared mortise into the bone, with 

 one side quite open. On the margins of this space 

 elongated slots are cut into an open, depressed space on 

 the back, and the socket is completed by coiling around 

 through them a string of animal tissue. 



With this specimen should be compared an example 

 from North Cape, with top and bottom barb, oblong line 

 hole decorated by furrows along the sides toward the tip, 

 terminating in two branches and a cross line." Length 

 of 89377 is 5 inches. Collected by P. H. Ray.' 



A combined barbed and toggle harpoon head (Cat. 

 No. 89378, U.S.N.M.) from Point Barrow, of antler, 

 all in one piece, is shown in fig. 74. The body is long, 

 slender, and angular in its outlines, a flat triangle in 

 section in front and pentagonal behind the barb. Line hole straight 

 through very near the butt end and parallel to the plane of the point 

 and lateral. barbs. Line grooves deep cut for a small rawhide line. 



There are three barbs, one on each margin, acute, the opening two- 

 sided ; the rear barb is a sharp termination of the rigid back. Socket for 



' Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 220, fig. 210. 

 '^ A. E. Xordenskiold, Voyage of the Vega, New York, 1882, p. 335. 

 ^ Ninth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 220, fig. 210. 



Fig. 73. 



BARBED AND TOG- 

 GLE HEAD. 



Point Barrow. 

 Collected by P. H- 

 Ray. Cat. No. 89377, 

 U.S.N.M. 



