278 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



the shaft half an inch deep, butt end cut off, with two faces and a ridge 

 in the middle. Length, 5^ inches. Collected by P. H. Ray. It is well 

 known that all such angular material has been made with steel tools. 

 Tho only attempt at decoration is a series of four short grooves extend- 

 ing forward from the angles of the lateral barb — a 

 common feature in Eskimo art. 



An ivory harpoon head (Cat. No. 89379, U.S.N.M.) 

 from the Eskimo camp near Point 

 Barrow, which marks that step in A 



the transition from the barbed head 

 to the toggle head in which the line 

 hole, line grooves, and shaft socket 

 of the latter are complete, is shown 

 in tig 7.5. Length, 5 inches. Col- 

 lected by P. H. Ray.^ It is com- 

 pared by Murdoch with a Chukchi 

 f orm.^ The blade is long and tapers 

 backward from the tip to the equal 

 barbs, giving to this part of the 

 specimen the form called sagittate, 

 and occupying two-thirds of the 

 length of the head. The tang of the 

 blade and barl)s expands to form 

 the body, through which the line 

 hole passes directly, perpendicular 

 to plane of the blade. The line 

 grooves are straight and uniform in 

 depth. The body widens from the 

 barb on the side that is to become the 

 spur or rear barb, the other side 

 being straight. The shaft socket 

 is in perfect alignment, and the base is a single 

 gracefully curved plane to the point of the spur. 

 A curious fragment of a combined barb and toggle 

 harpoon head (Cat. No. 89381, U.S.N.M.) is shown in 

 fig. 76. The parts are all from one piece of ivory ; the 

 barbed head is transverse to the line hole, the line hole 

 is somewhat triangular, and the specimen is much dis- 

 colored and disfigured, showing that it is old. Either owing to the 

 povert}' of material or on account of breakage, the after part of the 

 toggle head is too narrow for a socket to the foreshaft. In order 

 to remed}^ this defect the Eskimo hunter has made a furrow or cavity 



Fig. 74. 



COMBINED BARBED AND 

 TOGGLE HEAD. 



Point Barrow. 



Collected by P. H. Ray. 



Cut. No. 89378, U.S.N.M. 



Fig. 7.5. 



BARBED AND TOGGLE 



HEAD. 



Point Barrow. 

 Collected by P. H. Kay. 

 Cat. No. 89379, U.S.N.M. 



' Figured by Murdoch in Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 220, 

 fig. 211. 

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



