THROWING-STICKS. 281 



The figures illustrating tbis article are .drawn to a scale indicated by 

 inch marks in the margin, every dot on the line standing for an inch. 



By the presence or absence, by the number or the shape of son)e of 

 these marks or structural characteristics, the type and locality can be 

 easily detected. The Eskimo have everywhere bows and arrows for 

 land hunting, the former made of several pieces of bone lashed together, 

 or of a piece of driftwood lashed and re-enforced with sinew. The ar- 

 rows are of endless variety. 



It should also be noticed that the kind of game and the season of the 

 year, the shape and size of the spear accompanying the stick, and the 

 bare or gloved hand, are all indicated by language expressed in various 

 parts of tbis wonderful throwing-stick. 



GREENLAND TYPE. 



The Greenland throwing-stick is a long, flat trapezoid, slightly ridged 

 along the back (Fig. 2). It has no distinct handle at the wide end, 

 although it will be readily seen that the expanding of this part secures 

 a tirm grip. A chamfered groove on one side for the thumb, and a 

 smaller groove on the other side for the index finger, insure the imple- 

 ment against slipping from the hunter's grasp. Marks 5, 0, 7 of the 

 series on page 280 are wanting in the Greenland type. The shaft-groove, 

 in which lies the shaft of the great harpoon, is wide, deep, and rounded 

 at the bottom. There is no hook, as in all the other types, to fit the 

 end of the harpoon shaft, but in its stead are two holes, one in the front 

 end of the shaft-groove, between the thumb-groove and the finger- 

 groove, with an ivory eyelet or gromraet for a lining, the other at the 

 distal end of the shaft-groove, in the 'ivory piece which is ingeniously 

 inserted there to form that extremity. This last-mentioned hole is not 

 cylindrical like the one in front, but is so constructed as to allow the 

 shaft-p* g to slide off easily. These holes exactly fit two ivory pegs 

 projecting from the harpoon shaft. When the hunter has taken his 

 throwing-stick in his luind he lays his harpoon shaft upon it so that 

 the pegs will fall in the two little holes of the stick. By a sudden jerk 

 of his hand the harpoon is thrown forward and released, the pegs draw- 

 ing out of the holes in the stick. At the front end of the throwing-stick 

 a luirrow i)iece of ivory is pegged to prevent sidittiug. As before inti- 

 mated, this type of throwing-stick is radically different from all others 

 in its adjustment to the pegs on the heavy harpoon. In all other exam- 

 ples in the world the book or spur is on the stick and not on the weapon. 



UNGAVA TYPE. 



One specimen from Fort Chimo in this region, southeast of Hudson 

 Bay, kindly lent by Mr. Lucien Turner, is very interesting, having little 

 relation with that from (lreeiilan<l (which is so near geographically), 

 and connecting itself with nil the other types as far as Kadiak, in 



