192 



EXPLORATIONS IN THE FAR NORTH 



of 10. The backing is seized at the handle by sealskin. The 

 string is of several strands of three-ply braided sinew twisted 

 together. It is whipped with whalebone at the nocking point for 

 a distance of 4 inches. This bow was obtained from the Richard 

 Island natives, when they visited McPherson in July, 1893. 



The other two specimens were obtained at Herschel Island; 

 they are provided with ivory bridges and do not differ from 

 the "Arctic type" of Murdoch. 



Arrows. There are eight arrows in the collection, which 

 vary in length from 22.5 to 28.5 inches. Four are bird bolts 

 with short shafts; the others deer arrows with long, barbed 

 piles of walrus ivory. All but one have two feathers which are 

 laid on straight; the shaft of the feather is split, the web is cut 

 to less than half an inch in width and tapers to the ends which 

 are seized with fine sinew the end of which is fastened in a slit 

 on the stele; falcon and gull feathers are used. The shaftment 

 is flattened, tapering and stained with red ochre; the shaft is 

 from 0.3 to 0.4 inch in diameter and elliptical in cross section. 



No. 10,865 is of spruce, 28.5 inches long. The pile is easily 

 detached; it is 6 inches long, .6 inch in diameter with a sharp, 

 four-sided point. There are three barbs on each edge. One 

 side is more rounded than the other and both are ornamented 

 with incised lines. The notch is U-shaped and deeply cut. 

 No. 10,960 has a trihedral pile with three barbs. No. 10,863 is 

 similar but much smaller, being only 22.75 inches long. No. 

 10,867 is a specimen of a common type of bird arrows, used to 

 kill or disable without piercing. The head is cylindrical, .5 

 inch in diameter and 1.6 inches in length; four deep grooves 

 or notches give the shape of a cross to the blunt end; the tang 

 tapers to a point, so that the pile may be detached as easily as 

 the barbed ones. No. 10,864 is much larger, with a short pile 

 of heavy bone into which a cylindrical hole has been bored to 

 admit the blunt tip of the stele. 



There are twenty-five piles in the collection; they are made 

 of shale, walrus ivory, bone and steel; there are four of bone 

 which are deeply concave on one side, sharp edged, with four 

 barbs near the base; they are from 6 to 8 inches long. There 

 are four piles with a barbed ivory shank, into a cut in the end 

 of which is inserted a sagitate head of steel. No. 10,953 1S an 

 iron pile, 3 inches long, with a blunt notched tip. It differs from 



