MUKDOCH.] 



WHALE HAKPOON S. 



237 



232. Flint l.lailo 

 Itarpoon. 



for -whale 



through the line hole, doubled in the middle, the two parts are h rnilv 

 stopped together with sinew in four places, and in the ends are cut long- 

 slits for looping on the floats. When the head is fitted on the foreshaft 

 the line is secured to the flat face of the foreshaft by a little stop made 

 of a single strand of sinew, easily broken. About 28 inches from the 

 tip of the shaft the line is doubled forward and the bight stopped to 

 the shaft with six turns ol seal thong, so that 

 the line is held in place and yet can be easily de 

 tached by a straight pull. The ends are then 

 doubled back over the lashing and stopped to 

 the shaft with a single thread of sinew. 



Fig. 231 is a toy model of the whale harpoon, 

 No. 50502 [233], 18i inches long, made of pine 

 and ivory, and shows the manner of attaching 

 the floats, which are little blocks of spruce 

 roughly whittled into the shape of inflated seal 

 skins. A piece of seal thong 13 inches long 

 has its ends looped round the neck of the floats 

 and the harpoon-line is looped into a slit in the 

 middle of this line. 5 



&quot;VVe collected thirteen heads for such harpoons, 

 which have been in actual use, of which two have Hint blades like the 

 one described, two have brass blades, and the rest either blades of slate 

 or else no blades. The flint blades are either triangular like, the, one 

 described or lanceolate and are about 3 inches long exclusive of the tang. 

 The three separate flint blades which we, obtained (Fig. 232, No. 50708 

 [114], from Utkiavwln, is one of these, made of black flint) are about 1 

 inch shorter and were perhaps intended for walrus har- 

 Lpoons, though we saw none of these with flint blades. 

 [They are all newly made, for the market. 



The, slate blades of which we collected eleven, some 

 old and some new, besides those in the heads, are all 

 triangular, with curved edges, as in Fig. 233 (No. 50709 

 [139] from Ftkiavwlii, made of soft purple slate), except 

 one new one. No. 5G097 [188], which has the corners 

 cut off so as to give it a rhomboidal shape. The cor- 

 233.-suto Wade ners are sometimes rounded off so that they are nearly 

 r -whale harpoon, heart-sha j)ed. These blades are usually about 2j inches 

 long and 2 broad; two unusually large ones are 3 inches long and nearly 

 2J broad, and one small one 2-1 by 1-0 inches, and are simply wedged into 

 the blade slit without a rivet. The brass blades are of the same shape. 

 The common material for the body seems to have been rather coarse 

 whale s bone, from the rib or jaw. Only two out of the thirteen have 

 ivory bodies, and these are both of the newer 1 &amp;gt;rass-bladed pattern. The 

 body is very long and slender, being usually about 8 or 8i inches long 

 (one is 9 inches long) and not over 1J inches broad at the widest part. 



