176 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH.ANN. 18 



this season cold iiorth winds generally blow and render it very uncom 

 fortable to remain for hours in one position on the ice. To remedy this, 

 small shelters are arranged, consisting of grass mats, held on a frame 

 work of sticks, to the windward of the hole. In November, soon after 

 the ice is formed, a fisherman frequently catches 200 pounds of tomcod 

 in a day, but from 10 to 40 pounds is the average, result of a day s 

 fishing. 



Figure 24, plate LXVIII, represents an outfit for tomcod fishing, from 

 Cape Nome, consisting of the two rods, a whalebone line, stone sinker, 

 and hook as described. The line is guided through the notch in the 

 end of the rod, which is cut in at each end so that it forms a shuttle- 

 like stick, upon which the line is wound when not in use. In some 

 instances the four hooks are arranged around the sinker and held in 

 place by means of short, elastic leaders of whalebone or quill. 



Among the fishermen of Norton sound and along the American shore 

 of Bering strait the lines on which these hooks are held usually pass 

 through holes in the sinker and are wedged in place. On St Lawrence 

 island, sinkers are made with a hole at the bottom for suspending a 

 hook, and four other holes for a similar purpose at each of the rounded 

 corners. Figure 5, plate LXVIII, represents one of the sinkers from this 

 island; the hooks are made of iron and have from three to four points 

 on the end of a straight shank, which is lashed to a whalebone leader 

 by a sinew cord ; the upper end of the leader is passed through the holes 

 in the sinker and knotted. Accompanying this specimen is the stick 

 for manipulating the line when landing the fish (figure 32, plate 

 LXVIII). Figure 31, plate LXVIII, illustrates another tomcod fishing 

 outfit, from Norton sound, consisting of a shuttle-like rod notched at 

 each end and a thin rawhide line with an ivory sinker, which is in 

 two parts, excavated in the middle and filled with lead; the two halves 

 are held together by a lashing of whalebone; a whalebone loop extends 

 from the bottom of the sinker and to it is attached a small hook made 

 by lashing a small iron point across the lower end of a whalebone 

 shank; just above the sinker a leader of whalebone is attached to a line 

 with a similar hook. 



Figure 28, plate LXIX, represents a large sinker, from St Lawrence 

 island, made from a piece of the jawbone of a whale. On two of the 

 sides, a little below the middle, are holes through which pass whale 

 bone leaders about nine inches long, on which are hooks with bone 

 shanks having conical knobs on the lower ends; there are three slits 

 on one shank and two on the other, in which upstanding points of 

 bone are inserted and fastened in position with fine cord made from 

 whalebone. 



From Cape Nome was obtained an obovate ivory sinker, shown in 

 figure 4, plate LXIX. It has three holes in the sides, in which are inserted 

 three upstanding points of ivory over an inch in length, held in posi 

 tion by a wrapping of fine whalebone; lower, through one side of the 



