MURDOCH. ] FIREARMS. 193 
PROJECTILE WEAPONS. 
Firearms.—When Dease and Simpson first met these people, in 1837, 
they had no firearms, but the next party of whites who came in contact 
with them (Pullen and Hooper, in 1849) found the “chief” in possession 
of an old shaky musket of English make, with the name “Barnett” on 
the lock.! Hooper believed this to be the gun lost by Sir John Frank- 
lin’s party in 1826.22. This gun was, however, often seen by the people 
of the Plover (in fact, Capt. Maguire kept it on board of the Plover for 
some time’), and was found to have on the lock, besides the name ‘ Bar- 
nett,” also the date, 1843,” so that of course it was not lost in 1826. 
Armstrong‘ also mentions seeing this gun, which, the natives told him, 
they had procured “from the other tribes to the south 
ward.” In the summer of 1853 they began to purchase 
guns and ammunition from the eastern natives. Yuaksina 
and two other men each bought a gun this year. 
As the whalers began to go to Point Barrow in 1854, 
the opportunity for obtaining firearms has been afforded 
the natives every year since then, so that they are now 
well supplied with guns, chiefly of American manufacture. 
That all their firearms have not been obtained from this 
source is probable from the fact they have still in their 
possession a number of smoothbore percussion guns, 
double and single barreled, of Russian manufacture. 
They are all stamped in Russian with the name of Tula, 
a town on the Oopa, 105 miles south of Moscow, which 
has received the name of the “Sheffield and Birmingham 
of Russia,” from its vast manufactory of arms, established : 
by Peter the Great. These guns must have come from ye. 176.—so-called 
the “Nunatafimiun,” who obtained them either from  4@gger of bone. 
the Siberian traders or from the Russians at Norton Sound through 
the Malemiut. Both smoothbore and rifled guns are in general use. 
The smoothbores are of all sorts and descriptions, from an old flintlock 
musket to more or less valuable single and double percussion fowling- 
pieces. Three of the natives now (1883) have cheap double breechloaders 
and one a single breechloader (made by John P. Lovell, of Boston). 
Guns in general are called “‘cupin,” an onomatopeie word in general 
use in western America, but many of the different kinds have special 
names. For instance, a double gun is called madro‘lin (from madro, two). 
The rifles are also of many different patterns. The kind preferred by 
the natives is the ordinary Winchester brass-mounted 15-shot repeater, 
which the whalers and traders purchase cheaply at wholesale. This is 
Xx 
1 Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 239. 
2 Franklin, 2d Exp., p. 148. In the hurry of leaving Barter Island “‘one of the crew of the Reliance 
left his gun and ammunition.” 
3See McClure’s N. W. Passage, p. 390. 
4 Narrative, p. 109. 
5 Maguire, Further Papers, p. 907. 
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