150 



PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



Fig. 240 (on page 149). A harpoon-head of deer-horn, tolerably well pre- 

 served, but unfortunately broken at the lower extremity. The point and the two 

 barbs are carefully finished ; the perforation, sunk in from both sides, is of irreg- 

 ular form. A cross-section above it would form an elongated ellipse with a 

 shorter axis of nearly half an inch. Found by Mr. F. H. Gushing in a shell-heap 

 in Onondaga County, New York. 



This dart is the last in my available series of perforated specimens made of 

 bone or horn, which, I believe, were mostly intended to separate from the shaft 

 when launched. It probably has been noticed that these pierced dart-heads have 

 all unilateral barbs ; those with barbs on both sides, it will be seen, are not 

 perforated, but may also, in part at least, have been detachable. Perhaps it is 

 only owing to accident that none of the bilaterally barbed heads at my disposition 

 is perforated. The Eskimos of the Northwest Coast, it will be remembered, use 

 to this day walrus-ivory harpoon-heads with barbs on both sides and an eye for 

 receiving the line which connects the head with the shaft.* Some of the bone 

 points presently to be described may have been armatures for arrows used in 

 shooting fish. 



(\ 



1 * 



PlO. 241. New York. (6225). Fio. 242.-Maine (Casco Bay). 



FIGS. 241 and 242. Bone dart-heads. 



Fig. 241. A dart-head with three small barbs on each side, so placed that 

 they alternate. The upper side is rounded ; on the lower one the cavity of the 

 bone reaches from the broken lower end to the lowest barb. I would not venture 

 to say more concerning the use of this dart-head, than that it probably was 

 employed in the fish-hunt. Obtained in Ontario County, New York, and pre- 

 sented by Colonel* E. Jewett. 



* See Pigs. 19, 20, and 21 on p. 21. 



