NELSON] 



FISH SEINES 



189 



hand is similar to that represented so frequently in this region on masks 

 and in paintings of mythological beings. Figure 7, plate lxx, illus- 

 trates a stone sinker for a net, obtained at Point Hope, consisting of a 

 roughly triangular pebble with 

 a lashing of rawhide terminating 

 in a loop for attaching it to the 

 net. It is not grooved, advant- 

 age being taken of the natural 

 shape to secure the lashings. 

 Another example (figure G, plate 

 lxx), from the Diomede islands, 

 is a rounded bowlder, with 

 two pecked grooves extending 

 around it in opposite directions, 

 around which is a stout sealskin 

 cord. The lashings on both this 

 and the preceding sinker are per- 

 manent, and the attachment to 

 the net is made by a separate 

 cord. 



Ivory or bone weights fre- 

 quently alternate with stone 

 sinkers on the nets, and serve 

 both as sinkers and handles. 

 They vary from five to six or 

 seven inches in length, are more 

 or less curved, and have a hole 

 at each end for fastening them 

 to the net. A small bone handle of this kind (number 36395), with 

 the raven totem mark on its inner surface, was obtained at Kushunuk. 

 A set of four such handles from the lower Yukon are shown in figure 11, 



plate LXX. Another 

 set of four handles, 

 from Cape Vancou- 

 ver, illustrated in fig- 

 ure 3, plate LXX, are 

 slender, curved, bone 

 rods, with a hole at 

 each end. The sub- 

 oval weight of walrus 

 ivory shown in figure 

 5, plate LXX, was ob- 



riG.54— Sealakin-cord herring seine with stone sinker (g). taiUCd OU bt ijaW- 



rence island. 

 Directly after the freezing of the Yukon in the fall there is an annual 

 run of lamprey, which pass up the river, just below the ice, in great 



Fig. 53 — Herring seine, with stretcher at one end and 

 with float and sinker (J). 



