892 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



H \ r-^ 



3 4 5 C 7 



Pig. 109. 



FISHING WITH HOOK AND LINE. 



to make interpretation more difficult. The long upright lines may have 

 been intended to denote rods, as a similar line in the hands of No. 6 is 

 known to be. 



No. 3 may liave had a rod and line attached to his hands, as in Nos. 

 6 and 7, but the surface here is perfectly smooth and polished, thus 



obliterating all evidence 

 of such implements. 

 As many of the ivory 



drill bows and bag handles 



have inscribed uiion them 

 records of seal hunts in 

 which are found engrav- 

 ings of natives dragging seal, it seems proper, if not necessary, to 

 illustrate the utensil with which the dragging is performed. Fig. 110 

 represents a seal drag, an article with which every seal hunter is pro- 

 vided and carries with liim for dragging home his game. This consists 

 of a small ivory handle or knob, to which is secured a stout thong 

 doubled at the other end in a bight about 18 inches long. The bight is 

 looped into an incision in the animal's lower jaw^, while the knob serves 

 for attaching a longer line or the end of a dog's harness. The seal is 

 dragged on his back, and runs as smoothly as a sled. The illustration 

 of the drag referred to above is one 

 of a small collection in the National 

 Museum, and marked as from I'oint 

 Barrow.^ 



Some of these ivory knobs show 

 slight markings or incisions to serve 

 as ornamentation, as shown in plate 

 20, fig, 3, though the greater ni\mber 

 are carved in symmetrical forms, and 

 usually in imitation of seals, whales, 

 or something of this kind. 



Floats of inflated seal skin are used 

 in capturing wliale and walrus. An 

 excellent specimen from Point Bar- 

 row,^ fig. Ill, will serve to illustrate 

 the general appearance of the float, 

 and will furthermore serve to make 

 intelligible the peculiar fish-like ob- 

 ject portrayed on some ivory records, where the seal fisher is repre- 

 sented as in his kaiak, with the harpoon and float projecting backward 

 from the body. The accompanying illustration is here reproduced from 

 the Point Barrow report by Mr. Murdoch. 

 The village in plate 70, fig. 2, is located at Nos. 1 and 2, the store- 



SEAL DRAG. 



1 Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1887-88, 1892, p. 256, fig. 257 ^ 

 sidem, p. 24(3. 



