158 CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 
pointed piece of iron, usually an old knife blade, let into a slit 
in the ivory and secured by rivets. The head is about four 
inches long, and is pierced near the middle for a seal-line 
attached to it. This line is several yards long, and is fastened 
at its outer end to a whole sealskin blown up to act as a float and 
drag to the animal harpooned. The head of the harpoon is kept 
in place by a loop on the line, which fits tightly over a peg on 
the side of the wooden handle when the head shaft and handle 
are adjusted in line. The harpoon is thrown at the seal, walrus 
or whale, and its weight is sufficient to drive the head com- 
pletely through the skin; the cones between handle and shaft 
then turn and disjoint allowing the line to slip off the peg on 
the handle, so that the head separates from the remainder, 
which floats away. The sealskin bladder is thrown overboard, 
and after a few wild rushes the animal comes to the surface, 
dragging it along. The native then either shoots, or kills with 
the lance. The lance is somewhat similar in construction to 
the harpoon, but is without the head, the ivory shaft terminat- 
ing in a wide steel blade usually cut out of a saw or large knife, 
and is without barbs. 
The other weapon of the kyak is the duck dart used to 
entangle the eider ducks when they become fat and lazy in the 
late summer. This instrument consists of a light wooden shaft 
five or six feet long, with a trident of deer horn at its upper 
end. The pieces of horn are from six to eight inches long, and 
about half an inch in diameter; their sides are notched by a 
number of barbs pointing downwards, and they are so set at the 
head of the shaft as to project outwards at an angle of 45, 
while each piece of horn makes an angle of 120 with its neigh- 
bours. Similar barbed prongs are attached to the shaft about 
a foot from the upper end. The lower end of the shaft is flat- 
tened, and made tapering to fit a groove in a throwing board 
held in the hand of the hunter. This dart is very skilfully 
