NELSON] FISH HOOKS AND SINKERS 181 



I)late LXix, are attached to rounded, tapering sinkers of ivory. One 

 of them has a deerhorn shank, serrated on the edges, with a stout 

 iron barb inserted through the lower end. The other hook has a 

 rude, straight shank, made from a stick about four inches in length, 

 with a notch at the upper end for attaching the line, which passes 

 downward to the lower end, where a pointed spine of deerhorn is 

 lashed obliquely across it. Another variety of hook is a rudely made 

 specimen from St Lawrence island (figure 25, plate LXix). It is cut 

 from a piece of walrus ivory and is provided with a long barbed point. 

 It was used for catching wolf fish, but probably both this and the two 

 preceding examples were also used for cod-fishing. 



A similar hook from the same locality is shown in figure 29, plate 

 LXIX. In this case, however, the shank is of wood with a barbed point 

 of bone fitted in a slot at the base. The upper end of the shank has a 

 hole for attaching the whalebone line. This hook was used probably 

 for catching codfish. An outfit for catching wolf fish, illustrated in fig- 

 ure 27, plate lxviii, was obtained at the head of I^orton sound. It 

 consists of a shuttle-like rod, 28 inches in length, on which is wound a 

 rawhide line, near the end of which a rounded piece of lava, reddish 

 in color, is fastened with a basket lashing. The hook has a straight 

 deerhorn shank, to the lower end of which is lashed crosswise an iron 

 nail with the projecting end pointed. In the fork between the hook and 

 the shank a kind of bait composed of sinew-like material is secured 

 by a lashing. Figure 28, plate lxviii, shows a similar outfit from Nor- 

 ton sound, with the sinker made of a rounded granite pebble grooved 

 at each end for the attachment of the rawhide lashing Another out- 

 fit (figure 25, plate lxviii), from Korton sound, for catching blackfish 

 [Ballia) is a long, slender, shuttle like rod 20 inches in length, on which 

 is wound a short line of sinew with a small hook at one end. This 

 hook has a straight, rounded ivory shank and is provided with a 

 pointed iron pin through the lower end, with the tip upcurved. 



itflong the shore of Bering sea and the adjacent Arctic coast con- 

 siderable ingenuity is displayed by the people in manufacturing sink- 

 ers for fishing lines, and a great variety are made. For several species 

 of fish the sinker is intended to attract the fish, as well as to serve as 

 a weight for the line, and is made of a variegated white and dark 

 colored stone. Other sinkers, of ivory, have a portion of the surface 

 blackened, and some of the stone sinkers have an ivory cap. A large 

 collection of these objects was obtained, from which typical examples 

 have been selected for illustration. 



A specimen from the Diomede islands (figure 32, plate lxix) is a 

 piece of bone, discolored to a chocolate-brown, pierced with a hole and 

 grooved near the upper end to receive the line. The lower end has 

 a hole for fastening the leader for the hook. The lower end represents 

 the head of a fish, with an incision for the mouth ; a blue bead repre- 

 sents one eye and a piece of lead the other. Another example from 



