NELSON] FLOATS—LANCES 145 
shape of a closed human fist; it is placed in a hole in the lower side of 
the bear head and projects to the rear. 
The front ends of large floats are commonly provided with a cross bar 
of ivory, which serves as a handle for raising them, and at the same 
time is convenient for looping the lines. 
Figure 26, plate Lvia, from Unalaklit, is such a handle bar with the 
head of a seal carved at each end. 
Figure 23, plate Lvia, from the Dio- 
mede islands, is another such bar carved 
in the form of a woman. 
Figure 22, plate Lvia, from the lower 
Kuskokwim, has one end cut into the 
form of a grotesque head, and figure 30 
of the same plate, from Sledge island, 
has upon one end the head of a salmon 
and at the other a seal’s hind flippers. 
Figure 31, plate Lvia, from St Law- 
rence island, is a wooden bar, rounded 
in eross section, with a rounded knob 
at each end. 
LANCES 
In addition to the spears for killing 
whales and walrus, two distinct kinds 
of lances are used by the Eskimo. The 
ordinary form is found generally on the 
Asiatic and American coasts of Bering 
straits and thence northward along the 
Arctic coast. It consists of a slender 
wooden shaft, from six to seven feet in 
length, with a rounded point of flint, 
nephrite, or other hard stone, held in 
position by rawhide or willow-root jash- 
ings. In recent years some of these 
lances have been tipped with iron, but 
the use of stone for this purpose is con- 
nected with the superstition that exists 
among these people which prohibits the 
use of iron in cutting up these animals. 
Figure 3, plate LV), from Cape Nome, is a typical example of this 
style of lance. It has a shaft about 54 feet in length, oval in cross sec- 
tion, with a rounded point of chipped flint set in the slot at the end and 
bound firmly in position with a sinew lashing. 
Figure 4, plate Lv, from St Michael, is a shorter shafted lance, with 
the point made from marble ground down to the leaf-shape outline 
18 ETH——10 : 
Y 
\ 
a 
Fia. 41—Cord attacher, obverse and 
reverse (about §). 
