HARPOON-HEADS. 75 



Professor Nilsson represents in his work what he calls a leister, or fish-spear, 

 from the Northwest Coast of America. He sketched this implement in 1836 in 

 the Museum at Bristol. He also gives illustrations of another similar imple- 

 ment, ohtained north of Hudson's Bay, and preserved in the Ethnological 

 Museum at Copenhagen.* I reproduce as Fig. 98 his design of the upper part 

 of the last-named implement. His other figure shows the whole object on a 

 smaller scale. The implements are thus described by him : — 



" On the top of a long pole are fastened two tolerably long sharp-pointed 

 bones, the points bent a little outwards and the inner side provided with teeth 

 pointing backwards, to hold the fish securely when struck. These bones are 

 fastened to the shaft in such a manner that each, indej^endently of the other, is 

 in some way movable inwards and outwards ; their sides are therefore flat at 

 the other end, and the inner edge provided with one or more teeth, pointing 

 forwards, in order to be tied fast, so that they cannot be torn away by the fish ; 

 and, in order to prevent their being bent too much ajjart, they are tied together 

 by means of a strap at a short distance from the handle."f 



Speaking of the dart here represented (Fig. 98), he says : — 



" Its entire length is thirty-eight inches, of which the wooden shaft measures 

 thirty-one inches and three-fourths ; the bone points, in all eleven inches long, 

 are, to a length of five inches, fastened to the shaft, and consequently protrude 

 six inches beyond it. The shaft is round, about half an inch in diameter, some- 

 what compressed in front of the lower end, the end itself cut off diagonally with 

 an incised broad round notch, showing that a thick bow-string has been resting 

 thereon ; at the end three feathers are fastened lengthwise. It appears, however, 

 that this implement was made rather for shooting birds on the wing than for 

 spearing fish in the water.J 



" But be this how it may, it is nevertheless very remarkable that the half 

 of an implement, evidently similar to this last-mentioned one, has been found in 

 the peat-bog of Felsmosse, about three English miles from Lund, in the province 

 of Scania. I have sketched this on Plate IV, Fig. 79 (Fig. 99, ojiposite page). 

 This bone dart is seven inches long, round, and compressed ; the back a little 

 thicker, pointed towards the top end, round, and bent outwards a little ; 

 the inner side somewhat compressed, with fi\ e broad incisions forming teeth, 

 bent backwards ; the lower end broader and also compressed, the inner edge 

 provided with oblique notches forming teeth, jiointing forwards, which thus 

 prevent the dart from being drawn forward. But what still more shows the 



* Nilsson : Primitive Inhabitants ; Plate lY, Pigs. 75, 77, and 78. 

 t Ibid.; p. 33. 

 X Ibid. ; p. 34. 



