MURDOCH.] HARPOONS—SEAL AND WHALE. 235 
and the line brought down to the tip of the shaft and made fast by two 
or three round turns with a bight tucked under, so that 
it can be easily slipped. It is also confined to the loose 
shaft by the end of the assembling line, which makes one 
or two loose turns round it. The slack of the line is 
doubled into “fakes” and tucked between the 
shaft and assembling line. 
The other specimen is of the same pattern, but 
slightly different proportions, having a shaft 153 
inches long and a pick 19 inches long. The loose 
shaft is of ivory, and there are lashings of white 
whalebone at each end of the shaft. The assem- 
bling line is hitehed round the foreshaft as well 
as round the two ends of the shaft, and simply 
knotted round the pick. The line is of very stout 
sinew braid, and has an eye neatly spliced in the 
end for looping it round the shaft. Fig. 229, No. 
89551 [1082], is a model of one of these harpoons, 
made for sale. It is 164 inches long, and correct 
in all its parts, except that the whole head is 
of ivory, even to having the ends of the shaft 
whipped with light-colored whalebone. The shaft 
is of pine and the rest of walrus ivory, with lines 
of sinew braid. We also collected four loose 
shafts for such harpoons. One of these, No. 
89489 [802], is of whale’s bone and unusually 
short, only 14 inches long. It perhaps belonged 
to a lad’s spear. The other three are tong, 20 to 
25 inches, and are made of narwhal ivory, as is 
shown by the spiral twist in the grain: 
The harpoon used for the whale fishery is a 
heavy, bulky weapon, which is never thrown, but 
thrust with both hands as the whale rises under 
the bows of the umiak. When not in use it rests 
in a large ivory crotch, shaped like a rowlock, in 
the bow. The shaft is of wood and 8 or 9 feet 
long, and there is no loose shaft, the bone or 
ivory foreshaft being tapered off to a slender 
point of such a shape that the head easily un- 
Fic. 29— ships. This foreshaft is not weighted, as in the 
Model of a . oe ase J 
seal har. Walrus harpoon, since this is not necessary in a 
poon. weapon which does not leave the hand. The 
harpoon line is fitted with two inflated sealskin floats. 
No complete, genuine whaling harpoons were ever of- 
fered for sale, but a man at Nuwik made a very excel- AN aie eee 
lent reduced model about two-thirds the usual size (No. poon. 
89909 [1023], Fig. 230), which will serve as the type of this weapon 
