THROWING BOARDS. 



217 



.1 111. I I 

 lUtll nl 



well as the foresbaft. is sometimes made of wall us 

 sometimes of whale's bone. The chief variation i-, 

 martingale, and the details of th( nu i 

 No two are precisely alike. The loushilt is i,(ii( i ilh 

 plain, but is occasicmally highly om.init nt(d,,is is sliown 

 in Fig. 2(U, No. .5G.51G |l(lo].^ The fasuus au .ill mns.d 

 and cdlorcd. some with ocher and some \Mth so.it 



Both .if the kinds of darts al).)\e dcs( I ill. (1 n. thi.>\\ii 

 by means „{ a hand board or thi.)\\iiit, b.i iid I lns is i 

 flat, narrow board, from 1.5 to 18 inches hmt;, w .tli i li ni.U. 

 at one end and a groove along 

 the upper surface in which 

 the spear lies with the butt 

 resting against a catch at the 

 other end. The dart is pro- 

 pelled by a quick motion .)f 

 the wi'ist. as in casting with a 

 flyrod, which swings up the 

 tip of the board and launches 

 the dart forward. This con 

 trivauce, which practically 

 niake.s of tlie hand a lever 

 18 inches long, enables the 

 thrower by a slight motion of 

 the wrist to impart great ve- 

 locity to the dart. The use 

 of this implement is universal 

 Fig. 2(M.-Forf among the Eskimo, though not 

 shaft of seal dart, peculiar to them. The Green- 

 landers, however, not only use it for the two 

 kinds of darts already mentioned, bat have 

 a(lai)tcd it to the large hai]i.)oii.' This is 

 undoubtedly to adapt the large harpoon for 

 use from the kaiak, which the Greenlanders 

 u.se more habitually than most other E.skimo. 

 On the otlierlian.l, the peopleof Baffin Land 

 and tlic adjoining regions, as well as the 

 inhabitants of n.)rtheasteiii Siberia, use it 

 only witli the bird dart.^ Tlirough.mt west- 

 ern North America the throwing-board is 

 used essentially as at Point Barrow. Prof. 

 O. T. Mason has given' an interesting ac- 

 count of the diflerent forms of throwing-board used by the Eskimo and 

 Aleuts of North America. 



' Cr.intz. vol. 1, p. 14.!. Pi. V. Vi<:a. 1 ami 2. an.l Rink as i 

 ' Parry, Si-coud Voyage, p. 508 (Iglulik) : and Xordenski 

 'Smithsonian Keport for 1884, part ii , pp. 279-289. 



ted aliove. also Kane. Fir.st 1 

 , Vega, vol. 2. p. 105. Fig. 5. 



