MURDOCH. ] FLOATS—TOGGLES. 247 
toes, leaving the claws on. All natural or accidental apertures are care 
fully sewed up, except the genital opening, into which is inserted a ring 
of ivory, which serves as a mouthpiece for inflating the skin and is 
corked with a plug of wood. The cut in the throat is carefully sewed 
up, and the neck puckered together, and wrapped with seal thong into 
aslender shank about 1 inch long, leaving a flap of skin which is wrapped 
round a rod of bone 4 inches long and 1 in diameter, set across the 
shank, and wound with thong. This makes a handle for looping on the 
harpoon line. 
All the floats used at Point Barrow are of the same general pattern 
as this, and are generally made of the skin of the rough seal, 
though skins of the harbor seal (P. vitulina) are sometimes used. 
One of these floats is attached to the walrus harpoon, but two are used 
in whaling.' Five or six floats are carried in each boat, and are inflated 
before starting out. I have seen them used for seats during a halt on 
the ice, when the boat was being taken out to the “lead.” The use of 
these large floats is not peculiar to Point Barrow. They are employed 
by all Eskimo who pursue the larger marine mammals. 
Flipper toggles—We collected two pairs of peculiar implements, in 
the shape of ivory whales about 5 inches long, with a perforation in the 
belly through which a large thong could be attached. We understood 
that they were to be fastened to the ends of a stout thong and used 
when a whale was killed to toggle his flippers together so as to keep 
them in place while towing him to the ice, by cutting holes in the flip- 
pers and passing the ivory through. We unfortunately never had an 
opportunity of verifying this story. Neither pair is new. Fig. 250a 
represents a pair of these implements (ka’/gotin) (No. 56580 [227]). 
They are of white walrus ivory. In the middle of each belly is exca- 
vated a deep, oblong cavity about three-fourths of an inch long and one- 
half wide, across the middle of which is a stout transverse bar for the 
attachment of the line. One is a “ bow-head” whale (Balzna mys- 
ticetus), 44 inches long, and the other evidently intended for a“ Cali- 
fornia gray” (Rhachinectes glaucus). It has light blue glass beads 
inserted for eyes and is the same length as the other. 
Fig. 250 (No. 56598 [407]) is asimilar pair, which are both “bowheads” 
nearly 5 inches long. Both have cylindrical plugs of ivory inserted for 
eyes, and are made of a piece of ivory so old that the surface is a light 
chocolate color. The name, kagotin, means literally “a pair of toggles.” 
Harpoon boxes (u'dlun or w'blun, literally “a nest.”)—The slate harpoon 
blades already described were very apt to be lost or broken, so they 
always carried in the boat a supply of spare blades. These were kept 
in a small box carved out of a block of soft wood, in the shape of the 
animal to be pursued. 
1T learn from our old interpreter, Capt. E. P. Herendeen, who has spent three years in whaling at 
Point Barrow since the return of the expedition, that a third float is also used. It is attached by a 
longer line than the others, and serves as a sort of *' telltale," coming to the surface some time ahead 
of the whale. 
