MTBDOCH] HARPOONS. 221 



The next step was to obtain greater penetration by substitutiuir a 

 triangular blade of stone for the barbed bone point, willi its hicadtli 

 still in the plane of the body barb. This blade was citli, r 

 of .slate (Xo.8974i [iHiO] from Xu^Tik) or of flint, as in Fi..- 

 212 (Xo. S9748 [928], also from Xuwuk). Both of these aiv 

 whale harpoons, such as are sometimes used even at the 

 present day. 



Before the introduction (tf iron it was discovered that if 

 the blade were in.serted at riglit augl.-s to the jilane of tlic 

 body barb the harpoon woul<l have a smer hold, since the 

 strain on the line would always draw it at right an>>les to 

 the length of the wound cut by the blade. This is shown 

 in Fig. 213 (No. 5<i(i2(> [I'.MI], a' walrus harpoon head from 

 Utkiav-win), which has the slat.- blade inserted in this posi- 

 tion. Substituting a metal blade tnr the stone one gives 

 us the modern toggle head, as already described. That the 

 insertion of the stone blade incceded the rotation of the 

 plane of the latter is, I think, conclusively shown by the 

 whale harpoons' already mentioned, in spite of the fact that 

 we have a bone har- 

 poon head in the col- 

 lectioii. No. 8937S 

 [I2()l], figured in 

 Point Barrow report, 

 which is exactly like ,„, „, , ,,.j^ 



cept that it has the ""'^"■"'• 



ide ((t r'Kjht (uu/lcs to the iPJaiie 

 Of the bod'ybarb. Thi- i>. how- 

 ever, a ne\\l\ made model in rein- 



deerantlei-ofiheancient iiai] n, 



and was evidently made by a man 

 Ml used t o the modern ])attern that 

 he forgot this imj)ortaiit distinc- 

 tion. TIk' development of this 

 spear head lias been carried no 

 therat Point Barrow. Atone 

 or two ]ilaces, however, namely, 

 at <'und)erland (iulf in the east- 

 aud at Sledge Island in the west 

 (as shown in Mr. Nelson's collec- 

 tion), they go a step further in making the head of the seal harpoon, 

 body and blade, of one piece of iron. The shape, however, is the 

 same as those with the ivory or bone body. 



'Compare, alao, the walrus harpoon figured by Capt. Lyou, Pan'y'a Secuuil , Voyage. I'l. opposite 

 p. 550, Fig. l.-i. 



'See Kiuulien. Contributions, i). 35, and Boas. ■■Central Eskimo," p. 473, Fig. 393. 



Fig. 213. — Harpoon head. 



