158 CRUISE OP THE NEPTUNE 



pointed piece of iron, usually an old knife blade, let into a slit 

 in the ivory and secured by rivets. The head is about four 

 inches long, and is pierced near the middle for a seal-line 

 attached to it. This line is several yards long, and is fastened 

 at its outer end to a whole sealskin blown up to act as a float and 

 drag to the animal harpooned. The head of the harpoon is kept 

 in place by a loop on the line, which fits tightly over a peg on 

 the side of the wooden handle when the head shaft and handle 

 are adjusted in line. The harpoon is thrown at the seal, walrus 

 or whale, and its weight is sufficient to drive the head com- 

 pletely through the skin; the cones between handle and shaft 

 then turn and disjoint allowing the line to slip off the peg on 

 the handle, so that the head separates from the remainder, 

 which floats away. The sealskin bladder is thrown overboard, 

 and after a few wild rushes the animal comes to the surface, 

 dragging it along. The native then either shoots, or kills with 

 the lance. The lance is somewhat similar in construction to 

 the harpoon, but is without the head, the ivory shaft terminat- 

 ing in a wide steel blade usually cut out of a saw or large knife, 

 and is without barbs. 



The other weapon of the kyak is the duck dart used to 

 entangle the eider ducks when they become fat and lazy in the 

 late summer. This instrument consists of a light wooden shaft 

 five or six feet long, with a trident of deer horn at its upper 

 end. The pieces of horn are from six to eight inches long, and 

 about half an inch in diameter; their sides are notched by a 

 number of barbs pointing downwards, and they are so set at the 

 head of the shaft as to project outwards at an angle of 45, 

 while each piece of horn makes an angle of 120 with its neigh- 

 bours. Similar barbed prongs are attached to the shaft about 

 a foot from the upper end. The lower end of the shaft is flat- 

 tened, and made tapering to fit a groove in a throwing board 

 held in the hand of the hunter. This dart is very skilfully 



