24 The Story of the New England Whalers 



Puny were the implements of the red whalers, 

 but what they lacked in implements they made 

 up with courage, ingenuity, and perseverance. 



In John R. Jewett's Narrative of his adven- 

 tures among the Indians of the Northwest coast, 

 it is said that the Indians used harpoons made of 

 wood shafts with pieces of shell for points. It is 

 remarkable that these Indians, who made enor- 

 mous and seaworthy canoes from the trunks of 

 huge trees, should have used such frail weapons 

 as the shell-pointed spears were ; for they met, now 

 and then, the Eskimos living farther north, who 

 had harpoons and spears of superior construction. 

 Jewett won the regard of his Indian masters by 

 making whaling implements of iron; but he says 

 in his Narrative that his work only made them 

 the more determined to keep him from returning 

 to civilized parts of the world. 



The weapons made by the Eskimo whalers 

 were the best of any ever found among the abo- 

 rigines of America. The ingenuity displayed by 

 them in making what is known among white 

 whalers as the "toggle" harpoon was remark- 

 able. Taking a walrus tooth the Eskimo mechanic 



