MURDOCH. ] FIREARMS—BOWS. 195 
charges of shot at short rifle range (100 to 200 yards). Though they 
mold their own bullets, | have never known any of them to attempt 
making shot or slugs. This, which they call kakrira (little bullets, 
from ka/kru, originally meaning arrow and now used for bullet as well) 
is always obtained from the whites. The gun is habitually carried in a 
vase or holster long enough to cover the whole gun, made of sealskin, 
either black-tanned or with the hair on the outside. This, like the 
bow case, from which it is evidently copied, is slung across the back 
by a thong passing round the shoulders and across the chest. 
This is the method universally practiced for carrying burdens of all 
sorts. The butt of the gun is on the right side, so that it can be easily 
slipped out of the holster under the right arm without unslinging it. 
Revolvers are also carried slung in holsters on the back in the same 
way. Ammunition is carried in a pouch slung over the shoulder. 
They are careless in handling firearms and ammunition. We knew two 
men who shot off the tip of the forefinger while filing cartridges which 
had failed to explode in the gun. 
Whaling guns.—In addition to the kinds of firearms for land hunting 
above described a number of the natives have procured from the 
whalemen, either by purchase or from wrecks, whaling guns, such as 
are used by the American whalers, in place of the steel lance for dis- 
patching the whale after it is harpooned. These are of various pat- 
terns, both muzzle and breech loading, and they are able to procure 
nearly every year a small supply of the explosive lances to be shot from 
them. They use them as the white men do for killing harpooned whales, 
and also, when the leads of open water are narrow, for shooting them as 
they pass close to the edge of the ice. 
Bows (pizvksé)—In former times the bow was the only projectile 
weapon which these people possessed that could be used at a longer range 
than the “dart” of a harpoon. It was accordingly used for hunting 
the bear, the wolf, and the reindeer, for shooting birds, and in case of 
necessity, for warfare. It is worthy of note, in this connection, as 
showing that the use of the bow for fighting was only a secondary con- 
sideration, that none of their arrows are regular “ war arrows” like those 
made by the Sioux or other Indians; that is, arrows to be shot with the 
breadth of the head horizontal, so as to pass between the horizontal 
ribs of a man. Firearms have now almost completely superseded the 
bow for actual work, though a few men, too poor to obtain guns, still use 
them. 
Every boy has a bow for a plaything, with which he shoots small 
birds and practices at marks. Very few boys, however, show any great 
skill with it. We never had an opportunity of seeing an adult shoot 
with the bow and arrow; but they have not yet lost the art of bow- 
making. The newest boys’ bows are as skillfully and ingeniously con- 
structed as the old bows, but are of course smaller and weaker. The 
bow in use among these people was the universal sinew-backed bow of 
