aa 
MURDOCH. ] FLINT WORKING. 287 
on the back of a fish they spring apart and allow the middle prong to 
pierce him, and then spring back so that the spurs either catch in his 
sides or meet below his beliy, precisely on the principle of the ‘‘ patent 
eel spear.” This implement is almost identical with one in the National 
Museum from Hudson Bay, which appears to be in general use among 
the eastern Eskimo.’ The name, kaki/bua, is very nearly the same as 
that used by the eastern natives (kakkie-wéi, Parry, and kakivak, 
Kwnlien). This spear is admirably adapted for catching large fish in 
shallow rocky streams where a net can not be used, or where they are 
caught by dams in tidal streams in the manner described by Egede and 
Crantz. There is so little tide, however, on the northwest coast, that 
this method of fishing can not be practiced, and, as far as I know, there 
is no locality in the range of the Point Barrow natives, a region of open 
shoal beaches, and rivers free of rocks, where this spear could be used 
in which a net would not serve the purpose much better. Taking into 
consideration the scarcity of these spears and the general use of nets, I 
am inclined to believe that this spear is an ancient weapon, formerly in 
general use, but driven out of fashion by the introduction of nets. 
FLINT WORKING. 
These people still retain the art eof making flint arrow and spear- 
heads, and other implements suchas the blades for the skin scrapers to be 
hereafter described. Many of the flint arrowheads and spear points al- 
ready described were made at Nuwitk or Utkiavwin especially for sale 
to us and are as finely formed and neatly finished as any of the ancient 
ones. The flints, in many cases water-worn pebbles, appear to have 
been splintered by percussion into fragments of suitable sizes, and these 
sharp-edged spalls are flaked into shape by means of a little instru- 
ment consisting of a short, straight rod of some hard material mounted 
in a short curved haft. We collected nine of these tools (ki/gli) of 
which two have no blades. No. 89262 [1223] figured in Point Barrow 
Report, Ethnology, Pl. 11, Fig. 7, has been selected as the type. The 
handle is of walrus ivory, 7°8 inches long, straight and nearly cylin- 
drical for about 45 inches, then bending down like a saw handle and 
spread out into a spatulate butt. Fitted into a deep groove on the top 
of the handle so that its tip projects 1:5 inches beyond the tip of the 
latter is a slender four-sided rod of whale’s bone, 4:7 inches long. This 
is held in place by two simple lashings, one of cotton twine and the 
to this spear, and Captain Parry, (Second Voyage, p. 509) describes a very similar one in use at Iglulik. 
The ‘Perch, headed with two sharp-hooked Bones,” for spearing salmon—called in the Grenlandsk 
Ordbog, kakiak, ‘‘en Lyster (med to eller tre Pigge"’)—mentioned by Egede (Greenland, p. 108) is prob- 
ably the same thing, and a similar spear is spoken of by Rae (Narrative, p. 172) as in use at Repulse 
Bay. A similar weapon, described by Dr. Rink as ‘‘ Mit einem in brittischen Columbien vorkommenden 
identisch,’’ was found in east Greenland (Deutsche Geographische Blitter, vol. 9, p. 234). See the 
description of the spear found by Schwatka at Back’s Great Fish River (Nimrod in the North, p. 139), 
also described by Klutschak (Als Eskimo, ete., p. 120). 
