304 "REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



mu.st be most efficacious for its region and quarry, and not ■bulky, one 

 is not astonished to find a great variety of patterns in the structure and 

 in the knots on the lines. The Eskimo themselves were not all agreed 

 on th(\so points. Hence, for example, Murdoch discusses the question 

 "whether the l)lade of tlie toggle head shoukl be in the plane of the line 

 hole or acrossit. Again, the length of the shaft and other character- 

 istics Avere, in certain limits, fitted to the hunter. One has only to 

 look through Nelson's plates to be convinced that there was a range 

 of individual choice in many parts. While, therefore, it is correct to 

 sav that all harpoons of the different types resemble one another in 

 the same area, it is equally proper to add that no two harpoons are 

 alike. 



Besides the lesson in the histor}' of invention which this study 

 affords, other questions arise. What help do these technical speci- 

 mens offer to the ethnologist and the archseologist in deciding race, 

 language, migrations, and antiquity? Can it be said of a harpoon, or 

 some of its parts, found without label in a collection, that it was made 

 by this or that tribe, or that it came from a certain area? Or, if in a 

 shell heap or village site or grave certain harpoon parts are found, 

 will a comparison with the drawings ov descriptions in this paper tell 

 who the makers of these relics might have been ? In the first place, 

 if the technical products of peoples now living are to throw light upon 

 ethnic and archieologic investigations, these products must be collected 

 in large numbers and the identity of those who made and used them 

 must be settled beyond controversy. With reference to precious 

 material gathered after the discovery and scattered in private and 

 public collections, it is safe to label them as to tribe and locality by the 

 help of specimens lately acquired by scientific collectors. In this way 

 the mouths of these dumb witnesses will be opened. It must not be 

 forgotten, however, that unity of race is a matter of blood, of kinship; 

 that unity of speech is a matter of lip and ear, and requires some close 

 contact; while unity of industry is a matter of eye and hand and may 

 be easily communicated from afar. 



On the question, how much of all this invention is of native growth 

 and what proportion is exotic, wide differences of opinion still exist. 



To begin with, all iron and all work of iron are in a sense new, 

 added, accultural; not out and out, but in varying proportion and for 

 the most part merely substitutional. The iron blade takes the place 

 of a stone blade only as a better stone. It is hammered and ground 

 similarly. The simple tools alter shapes but little; they merely cut, 

 saw, grind, and pierce l)etter than the old. But a more vigorous sub- 

 stitution took place in the barter of devices between savage tribes 

 widely separated, but made acquainted, first in their own commerce, 

 and afterwards by the fishing and fur trading interests of the white 

 settlers. 



