Told of the Red Indian Whalers 27 



weapons. With the skill and strength of his 

 ancestors he drives it home as soon as possible 

 after he has struck his whale with the harpoon, 

 and it is only when this has been done that he 

 turns to use the steel lance and the bomb gun 

 which he buys of the white man. 



The float was the distinctive feature of the 

 Indian whaler implements. White and red 

 whalers alike used barbed spears for harpoons, 

 but it was the red man who always used the float 

 in connection with the harpoon. On the Atlantic 

 coast the Indians made their floats of logs of 

 light wood which were of as large a size as possi- 

 ble without bringing a strain upon the harpoon 

 line that would pull the head from the wound 

 or break the line. The line was only a few feet 

 long. To have made it longer would have allowed 

 the float to come within reach of the flexible tail 

 of the animal. The Indians depended upon 

 these floats to impede the progress of the whale 

 as it strove to escape from them. A single float, 

 whether it were an inflated sealskin or a log of 

 wood four feet long, did not materially lessen the 

 speed of a fleeing whale; but when the Indians 



