292 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



outside, to allow for shrinkage in hafting. The foreshaft, as in most 

 other specimens, is of whale's bone and cylindrical. The shank for fas- 

 tening to the shaft is shouldered and notched for the attachment of the 

 assembling line. No feathers; but on another specimen, No. 48153, 

 three half feathers, with plume inside, attached to their ends, as in 

 example No. 129585, from Cape Blossom. The point is of bone, flat 

 on one side and rounded on the other. Barbs, three on one margin 

 and two on the other. The shank of the point is flat. The line is of 

 dark seal rawhide, attached by one end through the line hole of the 

 point b}' means of two double splices an inch apart. It is split near 

 the middle, the two ends being fastened to the shaft about 18 inches 

 apart by means of a clove hitch. 



The front assembling line is looped around the shank of the fore- 

 shaft b}^ a clove hitch wrapped around the end of the shaft to prevent 

 slipping, and is continued to the upper attachment of the martingale. 

 Between its two knots the martingale acts as an assembling line. 

 From the hindmost knot of the martingale an assembling line of 

 sinew thread proceeds backward for 1 inches, where a dozen turns are 

 made and the end is punched into the wood near the end of the shaft. 

 Between the two knots of the martingale the shaft has been mended 

 by a series of half hitches and clove hitches made in sinew thread. 



In specimen No. 48154, from the same locality, the upper assembling 

 line is in fine seal rawhide. Length of shaft, 46 inches; foreshaft, 4 

 inches; point, 3 inches. 



Specimen No. 48365 in the IT. S. National Museum is a barbed har- 

 poon for throwing stick, from Nunivak Island, south of Yukon mouth. 

 The shaft is of soft wood, nearly uniform in thickness throughout, 

 truncated and wedge-shaped at the upper extremitj' to fit into a corre- 

 sponding cut in the foreshaft. Especial attention might be called to 

 the expansion of the small end of the wedge to correspond with depres- 

 sions in the shouldering on the parts of the foreshaft which overlap 

 the wedge, in order to prevent the joint from coming apart. This is a 

 step toward a dovetail. 



The foreshaft is of walrus ivory, slightl}' expanded in front and 

 conoid on the top. The tang has a wedge-shaped saw cut to tit on the 

 end of the shaft. The two flanges are shouldered Avhere they join the 

 bod}'^ of the foreshaft, and have notches cut on them at the outer 

 extremity for the lashing. This is driven on the end of the shaft and 

 the two are seized together b}^ means of sinew braid laid on neatly. 

 A small plug of wood is inserted in the outer end of the foreshaft, 

 having a conical socket for the butt end of the barb. 



At the base of the shaft there are two sets of black feathers, one 

 above the other. Each feather is whole, its inner end seized to the 

 shaft by means of the assembling line, which is wrapped several times 



