ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 288 



between the shaft and foreshaft. and the other end pressed into a 

 groove in the wood and held l)v a small wedge. 



This delicate specimen is the only example of the class of l)arV)ed 

 harpoons with hand rest cominof from a point north of Bering Strait. 

 Length of shaft, 4 feet 3 inches; foreshaft, 7 inches; point, 3 inches. 

 Collected by Capt. M. A. Healy. of the U. S. Revenue ^Marine. 



HARPOONS OK BERING SEA. 



The harpoons of this area were fulh' described and figured by Nel- 

 son in 1899, who had the advantage of having seen the specimens at 

 work. The massive harpoons of Greenland and the central Eskimo 

 are wanting here, but the greatest variety- of forms and parts is to be 

 found. Again, if the flat varieties of eastern Asia, with line hole in 

 the plane of the blade, are the more aboriginal, their nearest kin are 

 to be seen, not in Bering Sea, but around Greenland. It is as when an 

 Oxford professor, wishing to know something of his old-time kin, 

 visits, not the nearest English town, but the heart of some New AVorld 

 <?olon3'. The Bering Sea Eskimo h;:ve been profoundly afl'ected by the 

 vigorous prosecution of the fur trade during the past century and a 

 half. The possession of steel tools has revolutionized their flne art; 

 but, fortunately for this study, the harpoon has kept more loj'^alh' to 

 its ancient models. There are barbed varieties, toggle varieties, and 

 .some are mixed. There are those which are thrust with the hands, 

 others are hurled from the hand, and very many are cast from throw- 

 ing sticks. Of this last-named implement a number of type forms are 

 to be seen between Mackenzie River and Sitka. Here also will be 

 found feathered harpoons, those with bladders attached to the shaft, and 

 harpoon aj*rows. In the more southern portions of the Bering Sea area 

 the harpoon attains a finesse in structure and appearance nowhere else 

 seen. The collections from this area made b}- Nelson, Turner, Dall, 

 Applegate, and Johnson are unparalleled for comparative stud3^ 



Among a large collection of these seal darts or barbed harpoons 

 from Unalakleet, in the nortlieast corner of Norton Sound, a great 

 majority have cj^lindrical foreshafts made of whale's bone, but one 

 •or two specimens have the heads of walrus ivory and the front end 

 tapered in conical form. Farther south this characteristic is more 

 abundant. Barbs on the points are three on one margin and two on 

 the other, and two on one margin and one on the other. 



According to Lueien Turner, the harpoon darts with very thick 

 foreshafts and elongated bladders attached to the shaft are for salmon. 

 They are confined to Bristol Bay and the south side of the Alaskan 

 peninsula, so far as the U. S. National Museum is concerned. 



Cat. No. 33859 in the U. S. National Museum is a barbed harpoon 

 thrown from the hand by means of a hand rest on the shaft. Quite 

 similar is No. 36068, as shown in Plate 8, described in Nelson, 1899 



