284 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
of the peculiar method of reeling up the line such as we saw at Point 
Barrow. Lines of whalebone are very common among the Eskimo 
generally,! and perhaps this material is preferable to any other for 
fishing in this cold region, for not only does the elastic whalebone 
prevent kinking, but the ice which forms instantly on the wet line 
in winter does not adhere to it, but can easily be shaken off. No. 56545 
[410] is a line 51 feet and 10 inches long and 0-05 inch in diameter, made 
of human hair, neatly braided in a round braid with four strands. This 
was called a fishing line, but was the only one of the kind seen. 
Fishhooks of the kind described, with a body of bone or ivory, which 
serves for a lure, armed with a spur or bent hook of metal, without a 
barb, seem to be the prevailing type amongst the Eskimo. In the 
region about Norton Sound (as shown by the extensive collections of 
Mr. Nelson and others) this is often converted into an elaborate lure by 
attaching pendants of beads, bits of the red beak of the puffin, ete. 
Crantz mentions a similar custom in Greenland of baiting a hook with 
beads.” 
Nets (Kubra).—The most important fishery at the rivers is carried on 
by means of gill-nets, set under the ice, and visited every few days. In 
these are taken large numbers of all three species of whitefish (Core- 
gonus kenicotti, C. nelsoni, and C. laurette.) The collection contains 
three specimens of these nets, two of whalebone and one of sinew. No. 
56754 [147], Fig. 275, is a typical whalebone net. It is long and shal- 
low, 79 meshes long and 
21 deep, made of fine 
strips of whalebone fast- 
ened together as in the 
whalebone fishing lines. 
Most of the whalebone is 
black, but a few light col- 
ored strips are intermixed 
at random. The length 
of the mesh is 54 inches, 
and the knot used in mak- 
Fig. 275.—Section of whalebone net. ing them is the ordinary 
netting-knot. When not 
in use the net is rolled up into a compact ball and tied up with a bit 
of string. When set, this net is 21 feet 7 inches long and 3 feet 4 
inches deep. The other whalebone net (No. 56753 [172], also from 
Utkiavwin), is similar to this, but slightly larger, being 87 meshes (25 
99 /2 
feet) long and 22 (3 feet 9 inches) deep. The length of mesh is 34 inches. 
' “Their Lines are made of Whalebones, cut very small and thin, and at the End tacked together.” 
Egede, Greenland, p. 107. Seealso. Crantz, vol. 1, p. 95; Dall, Alaska, p. 148; and the Museum Collee- 
tions which contain many whalebone lines from the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers, collected by 
MacFarlane, and from the whole western region, collected by Nelson. 
2“ Tnstead of a bait, they put on the hook a white bone, a glass bead. or a bit of red cloth” (when 
fishing for senlpins). History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 95. 
