220 



THE POIXT BARROW ESKIMO. 



hind this it is narrowed and then widened into a broad flat base pro 

 duced on one side into a sharp barb, in the same plane as the other barb, 



which represents the blade, but on the opposite 

 side. The line hole is large and irregularly tri 

 angular, and there are no line grooves. Instead 

 of a shaft socket bored in the solid body, one 

 side of the body is excavated into a deep longi 

 tudinal groove, which was evidently converted 

 into a socket by a transverse band, probably 

 of sealskin, running round the body, and kept 

 in place by a shallow transverse groove on the 

 convex side of it. A harpoon head with the 

 socket made by inclosing a groove with thongs 

 was seen by Dr. Kane at 

 Smith Sound. 1 



The next form, No. 89331 

 [932], Fig. 209, has two 

 bilateral barbs to the blade 

 part, thus increasing its 

 holding power. Instead of 

 an open transverse groove 

 to hold the thong, it has 

 two slots parallel to the 

 socket groove running ob. 



liqiiely to the other side, where they open into a 

 shallow depression. Figs. 209& and 210, Nos. 89544 

 [1419] and 89377 [766], are variants of 

 this form, probably intended for the 

 larger seal, as the blade part is very 

 long in proportion. No. 89544 [1419] is 

 interesting from its close resemblance 

 to the spear head figured by NordenskioUl 2 from the ancient 

 &quot;Onkilon&quot; house at North Cape. No. 89377 [706] is a pe 

 culiar form, which was perhaps not general, as it has left 

 no descendants among the modern harpoon. Instead of the 

 bilateral blade barbs it has an irregular slot on each side, 

 which evidently served to hold a blade of stone, and the 

 single barb of the body is replaced by a cluster of four, 

 which are neither in the plane of the blade nor at right 

 angles to it, but between the two. No modern harpoon 

 heads from Point Barrow have more than two barbs on the 

 body. The next improvement was to bore the shaft socket 

 FIQ. 211. Bone instead of making it by inclosing a groove with thongs, 

 harpoou bead, fliis is shown in Fig. 211 (No. 89379 [795], from Utkiavwin), 

 which is just like No. 89544 [1419] except in this respect. The line 

 grooves first appear at this stage of the development. 



Fio. 209. Harpoon heads: (a) an 

 cient bone, harpoon head ; (&) va 

 riant of the type. 



Fio. 210. Bone harpoon 

 head. 







1 Second Grinnell Exp., vol. 1, Figa. on pp. 412 and 413. 



2 Vega, vol. 1, p. 444, Fig. 5. 



