MUHDOCH.] FLOATS TOOGLES. 247 



toes, leaving the claws on. All natural or accidental apertures are care 

 fully sewed up, except the genital opening, into which is inserted a ring 

 of ivory, which serves as a mouthpiece for inflating the skin and is 

 corked with a plug of wood. The cut in the throat is carefully sewed 

 up, and the neck puckered together, and wrapped with seal thong into 

 a slender shank about! inch long, leaving a flap of skin which is wrapped 

 round a rod of bone 4 inches long and 1 in diameter, set across the 

 shank, and wound with thong. This makes a handle for looping on the 

 harpoon line. 



All the floats used at Point Barrow arc of the same, general pattern 

 as this, and are generally made of the skin of the rough seal, 

 though skins of the harbor seal (! . vitulina) are sometimes used. 

 One of these floats is attached to the walrus harpoon, but two are used 

 in whaling. 1 Five or six floats are carried in each boat, and are inflated 

 before starting out. I have seen them used for seats during a halt on 

 the ice, when the boat was being taken out to the -lead.&quot; The use of 

 these large floats is not peculiar to Point Barrow. They are employed 

 by all Eskimo who pursue the larger marine mammals. 



Flipper toggles. We collected two pairs of peculiar implements, in 

 the shape of ivory whales about 5 inches long, with a perforation in the 

 belly through which a large thong could be attached. We understood 

 that they were to be fastened to the ends of a stout thong and used 

 when a whale was killed to toggle his flippers together so as to keep 

 them in place while towing him to the ice, by cutting holes in the flip 

 pers and passing the ivory through. We, unfortunately never had an 

 opportunity of verifying this story. Neither pair is new. Pig. 250a 

 represents a pair of these implements (ka gotln) (No. 56580 [227]). 

 They are of white walrus ivory. In the middle of each belly is exca 

 vated a deep, oblong cavity about three-fourtjis of an inch long and one- 

 half wide, across the middle of which is a stout transverse bar for the 

 attachment of the line. One is a &quot;bow-head&quot; whale (Bahenamys- 

 ticetus), 4 inches long, and the other evidently intended for a &quot;Cali 

 fornia gray&quot; (Khachinectes glaucus). It lias light blue glass beads 

 inserted for eyes and is the same length as the other. 



Fig. 250 (No. 5(5508 [407]) is a similar pair, which are both &quot;bowheads&quot; 

 nearly 5 inches long. Both have cylindrical plugs of ivory inserted for 

 eyes, and are made of a piece of ivory so old that the surface is a light 

 chocolate color. The name, kagotln, means literally &quot; a pair of toggles.&quot; 



Harpoon boxes (ii dlini or u blun, literally &quot;a nest. &quot;) The, slate harpoon 

 blades already described were very apt to be, lost or broken, so they 

 always carried in the boat a supply of spare blades. These were kept 

 in a small box carved out of a block of soft wood, in the shape of the 

 animal to be pursued. 



1 1 learn from our old intarpreter. Capt. E. P. Hcrendoen, who has spent three years in whaling at 

 Point Barrow since the return of the expedition, that a third tlciat is also used. It is attached hy a 

 longer lino than the others, and serves as a sort of &quot; telltale,&quot; coining l the surface some time ahead 

 of the whale. 



