HARPOON-HEADS. 141 



triacanthos, Lin.), growing in the District of Columbia. This hook, consisting 

 of tough wood, probably would make just as efficient a fishing-implement as the 

 Kutchin hook figured on page 123, or as Captain Smith's " splinter of bone tyed 

 to the clift of a little sticke." 



The sinkers used in connection with line-fishing will be considered under 

 the general head of " Sinkers." 



I am not cognizant of the existence of any prehistoric North American 

 objects to which the character of floats can be attributed. 



Harpoon and Arrow-heads. As in the first part of this work, the description 

 of harpoon-heads follows that of the implements used in angling a succession 

 by no means intended to convey the idea that harpooning was a later practice 

 than line-fishing. Man, in the opinion of many, hunted fish before he caught 

 them. Yet, a harpoon, more especially one with a detachable head, is a rather 

 complicated contrivance, and its later developments may, generally speaking, 

 post-date the invention of a primitive angling-apparatus. A double-pointed 

 bone r<5d attached to a line, though requiring a bait, is certainly a very simple 

 device, that may have been resorted to in the earliest times. The question of 

 priority, therefore, cannot be decided with absolute positiveness, and thus it 

 matters little whether I treat harpoon-heads after fish-hooks, or vice versa. 



There can be little doubt that among the immense number of dart-heads of 

 chipped silicious material, which are found everywhere in this country, many 

 served as the armatures of spears and arrows used in the capture of fish. In- 

 deed, there is hardly a collection of such articles from which barbed specimens 

 suitable for such applications could not be selected ; even unbarbed ones are 

 thought by some to have served as the heads of darts employed in the fish-hunt. 

 I could figure a series of such specimens ; but in view of their well-known char- 

 acter, and of the circumstance that the use of any given object of this class in 

 connection with fishing is absolutely problematical, I refrain from presenting 

 illustrations.* 



The Greenland Eskimos sometimes used, as discoveries in ancient sepulchres 

 have shown, blades of chipped flint or ground slate for pointing the detachable 

 harpoon-heads, somewhat in the manner shown by Fig. 110 on page 83. The 

 Eskimos of the more eastern parts of North America likewise provided their 

 detachable harpoon-heads with ground slate points ; but at present they insert, 

 like the Greenlanders, blades of iron, in consequence of the increased facilities 

 of obtaining that metal.f In general, however, their harpoon-heads are entirely 

 made of bone or walrus-ivory. 



* I am aware of tha existence of a few stemmed flint points which are barbed only on one side. It appears 

 probable that they were the armatures of arrows used in shooting fish. 



f I have seen some harpoons from the Northwest Coast, in which the head terminated in a blade of sheet 

 copper. 



