294 KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



bladders, stomachs, or intestines of seal or walrus. They are cleaned 

 out, one end fastened up securely, and into the other a mouthpiece 

 with plug- is set for purpose of inflation. The subject is discussed by 

 Nelson.^ In the example shown the process of inserting a stud or plug- 

 into the float where it has been pierced is illustrated. Length of shaft, 

 44 inches; length of foreshaft, 3^ inches; length of barb, 4i inches. 

 Specimen No. 11356 is quite similar. Length of shaft, 46i inches; 

 length of foreshaft, 3 inches. 



Examples No. 8004 to 8007 in the U. S. National Museum are feath- 

 ered harpoon darts from Bristol Bay. The shaft is very little expanded 

 in front and slightly expanded at the nock. There are three half feathers 

 neatly trimmed and bound on in front by the assembling line which is 

 also used to seize the foreshaft, wrapped around the shaft and ends at 

 the feathers. The feathers are seized at the nock with a strip of split 

 quill and are further held in place by a thread which holds the mid- 

 rib of the feather to the shaft of the dart at flv^e places. The feather 

 seizing at the nock is noticeable in all of these specimens and separates 

 them from the others in the collection. 



The foreshaft, of ivory, is conical, smaller at the butt end, where it 

 is inserted into the shaft by means of a shoulder plug which is driven 

 into the socket at the end of the shaft. The front end of the foreshaft 

 is abruptly conical and finished oil with -a wooden plug which has a 

 pit or socket for the barbed point. The point is of bone and has two 

 barbs on one side and one on the other. Length of shaft, 44i inches; 

 of foreshaft, 5^ inches; of point, 3 inches. Collected by Dr. T, T. 

 Minor. Similar to these are Nos. 19378 and 19380, collected by the 

 Rev. James Curley, having in all respects the same characteristics, 

 excepting that the seizing at the nock is not of quill, but a continua- 

 tion of the thread which holds the shaft of the feather to the shaft of 

 the spear. 



Plate 13 (Cat. No. 90416, U.S.N.M.) is a sea-otter spear from Ugashik, 

 Bristol Bay, Alaska. The shaft is of wood, tapering from the fore end 

 to the rear end. The head is of bone and has two barbs on one margin 

 and one on the other. The line hole is small and has no line grooves. 

 The tang is whittled ofi' thin to fit into a delicate socket on the end of 

 the shaft. The leader or loop on the barbed head is a narrow strip of 

 sealskin doubled through the line hole and seized together. The ends 

 are also united in such a way that the loop is closed in the middle. At 

 the other end the thong is doubled, passed through an e3^elet, over the 

 projecting point to form a " detacher." On the shaft at five places are 

 bands of birch bark and around these are wrapped sinew twine in half 

 hitches for the purpose of retrieving the parts of the shaft if it should 

 be broken. The bladder is a portion of the intestine of a seal, having- 



* The Eskimo about Bering Strait, 1899, pp. 40 to 145. 



