DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PLATES BONE IMPLEMENTS, ETC. 49 



B. PLATE VI. 



In our description of B. Plate I., illustrating several Bone Implements, of 

 different sizes and usually regarded as Heads of Arrows or Harpoons, we stated 

 (page 10) that in a subsequent Plate we would figure some implements having a 

 still more distinct appearance of having been used in Pishing. Several of the 

 instruments shown in B. Plate VI., and about to be described, are subcylindrical 

 pieces of Reindeer-horn, pointed at the ends, and armed on one side with sharp 

 recurved teeth, or barbs; and they thus resemble certain Fishing-Implements 

 which are in use among the natives of different countries, and which have been 

 nearly always termed Harpoons by travellers who have figured or described them 

 from the originals. "We proceed, then, to reproduce, in woodcuts, some examples 

 of these implements, of different ages and countries, to show that, however great 

 the distance in time and space, there is throughout, even in minute details, a 

 striking analogy, and even identity, in the mechanical resources invented by man 

 to supply the first necessaries of life. 



Nevertheless we must allow that resemblance, and even identity, in form 

 does not always unmistakeably imply a similar mode of use for the weapon 

 or implement. 



Thus with the specimens shown in the annexed woodcuts, and termed " Harpoons " 

 by the authors from whose works they have been copied, are two harpoon-like im- 

 plements (figs. 5 and 6) made of Reindeer-horn by the North-American Esquimaux. 

 In one of these (fig. 5) the spike or point is made of the same piece as the shank ; 

 in the other (fig. 6) the top of the shank is hollowed so as to receive, in a socket, a 

 point or armature, of a mineral nature, iron or worked stone (we have not been able 

 to determine which, the specimen having come to us without its moveable point). 

 These two harpoon-like implements were each firmly set in a shaft of light wood 

 (deal or birch) ; and we were obliged to detach them, to examine the mode of 

 their insertion. Now, the other end of the shaft is feathered on two sides, and 

 notched at the butt, to fit on a bow-string. Hence these pointed implements with 

 barbs on one side, such as we have from Pe'rigord, are now used as Arrow-heads 

 by the Esquimaux ; and there is much uncertainty as to the actual mode of use 

 of objects similarly shaped, which we find in the Caverns and other ancient 

 Stations of Dordogne and the Pyrenees. 



The analogy is repeated also in the indications of the method of setting the 



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