286 



THE POINT BAKKOW ESKIMO. 



inquiries about it. From its shape it would appear as if it were meant 

 to be set in a stream with the mouth towards the current. This con 

 trivance is called sapotin, which corresponds to the Greenlandic saputit, 

 a dam for catching h sh. 



From all accounts, the natives east of the Anderson Kiver region were 

 ignorant of the use of the net before they made the acquaintance of the 

 whites, 1 though they now use it in several places, as in Greenland and 

 Labrador. Theearliest explorerson the northwest coast, however, found 

 -\ both h sh and seal nets in use, though, as I have already mentioned, the 

 seal net was spoken of at Point Barrow as a comparatively recent in 

 vention. At the present day, nets are used all along the coast 

 from the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers (see, MacFarlane s Col 

 lection ) as far south at least as the Yukon delta. 2 1 have not 

 been able to learn whether gill nets are used in the delta of the 

 Kuskoquini. I etroft 3 mentions tish traps and dip nets merely. 

 That the natives of Kartiak formerly had no nets I infer from 

 Petroff s statement 4 that &quot; of late they have begun to use seines 

 of whale sinew.&quot; Nets are generally used on the Siberian 

 coast. We observed them ourselves at Plover Bay, and Nor- 

 denskiold 5 describes the nets used at Pitlekaj, which are made 

 of sinew thread. It is almost certain that the American Eskimo 

 learned the use of the net from the Siberians, as they dirt the 

 habit of smoking, since the use of the gill net appears to have 

 been limitert to precisely the same region as the Siberian form 

 of tobacco pipe. 6 



Spears. The only evidence which we have of the use of spears 

 for catching fish in this region is a single specimen, No. 89901 

 [1227], Fig. 278, from Utkiavwin, which was newly and rather 

 carelessly made for sale, but intended, as we were told, for spear 

 ing fish. This has a roughly whittled shaft, of spruce, 21 

 inches long, armed at one end with three prongs. The middle 

 prong is of whalebone, 4J inches long, inserted into the tip of 

 the shaft, which is cut into a short neck and whipped with sinew. 

 FIG - 78 - The side prongs are also of bone, 9 inches long. Through the ti p 

 Fish spear. o f each is driven a sharp, slender slightly recurved spur of bone, 

 about 1 J inches long. Each prong is fastened to the shaft with two small 

 wooden treenails, and they are braced with a figure-of-eight lashing of 

 sinew through holes in the side prongs and around the middle one. The 

 side prongs are somewhat elastic, so that when the spear is struck down 



I The Greenlanders used a sort of sieve or .scoop net, not seen at Point Harrow, for catching caplin 

 (Mallotus villosus). Ejjede, Greenland, p. 108; and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 95. John Davis, however, says 

 of the Grecnlanders in 15811, &quot;They make nets to take their fish of the tiune of a whale.&quot; Hakluyt s 

 Voyages, etc. (1589), p. 782. 



Ball, Alaska, p. 147; anil Petroff, Report, etc.. p. 127. 



3 Op cit., p. 711. 



Opcit., p. 142. 



Vega, vol. 2, p. 109. 



6 See the writer s paper in the American Anthropologist, vol. 1, pp. 325-31(0. 



