238 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
It is always cut off very obliquely at the base, and the part in front of 
the line hole is contracted to a sort of shank, as in Fig. 254 (No. 
89747 [1044]), a head with slate blade (broken) and 
if bone body. This represents a very common form 
in which the shank is four-sided, while back of the 
middle the outer face of the barb rises into a ridge, 
making this part of the body five-sided. The edges 
of the shank are sometimes rounded off so as to 
make this part elliptical in section, and all the 
edges of the body except the keel, on the outer 
face of the barb, are frequently rounded off as in 
Fig. 235a, No. 89745 [1044], which has a slate blade 
wedged into the bone body with a bit of old cloth 
and a wooden wedge. Fig. 235b, No. 56602 [157], 
from Utkiavwii, is a head of the same shape, but 
has a brass blade and a body of ivory. This blade 
is wedged in with deer hair, but the other brass- 
bladed harpoon, No, 56601 [137], has a single rivet 
of whalebone. 
The blade slit, and consequently the blade, is 
always in the plane of 
the barb, which position, 
as I have said before, cor- 
TeAo A See responds to the last step 
harpoon head. but one in the develop- 
ment of the harpoon-head. When the blade is 
ot flint and inserted with a tang, the tip of the 
body is always whipped with sinew braid, as in 
Fig. 212, No. 89748 [928], from Nuwtk. This 
specimen is remarkable as being the only one 
in the series with a double point to the barb. 
These bodies are sometimes ornamented with / 
incised lines, in conventional patterns, asshown 
in the different figures. A short incised mark |j 
somewhat resembling an arrow (see aboye, Fig. 
234, No, 89747 [1044] ) may have some signifi- 
cance as it is repeated on several of the heads. 
Harpoon-heads of this peculiar pattern are to 
be found in the Museum collection from other 
localities. As we should naturally expect, they 
haye been found at the Diomede Islands, St. 
Lawrence Island, and Plover Bay. It is very 
interesting, however, to find a specimen of pre- 
cisely the same type from Greenland, where the 
modern harpoons are so different from those 
used in the west. 
That the line connecting the head with the float line 1s not always so 
Fic. 235.—Whale harpoon heads. 
