357 



and have no lateral barbs; Nos. 2 and 5 as well as No. 6, moreover, 

 approach closely to the old type by having an undivided basal 

 barb lying in the median line, and No. 6 also agrees with it 

 in having the whole shape of the body flattened laterally, 

 so that it is higher than it is broad; the line-hole is bored 

 across the vertical plane of the body. Nos. 1 and 2, on the 

 other hand, approach to a younger type (Swenander, inv. Pfaff 

 Nos. 37 — 40) in having their breadth greater than their height. 

 The two heads have lateral line-holes, but the inner path of 

 the line-hole is curved, a feature which seems to point to a 

 more recent type. Thus it appears as if older and younger 

 characteristics were blended in these two heads. In No. 3 the 

 transition to a curved pathway is traceable, and its body is 

 more dumpy than any of the others. In this particular it ap- 

 proaches more than any of the others to the Ammassalik type. 

 Provided that in these differences of type we are justified 

 in seeing different stages of development M, we find, as Swen- 

 ander in fact observes^), in the North East Greenland harpoon 

 heads the original type entirely unchanged, and side by side 

 with them types marking the transition to more recent forms. 

 Inv. Amd. 5 represents the oldest stage in the Greenland 

 harpoon heads; when it is held in such a position that the 

 line-hole lies horizontally, it is seen to have greater height 

 than breadth, and the basal barb, which is undivided, lies in 

 the vertical plane, at right angles to the line-hole; the blade 

 of the head is also placed at right angles to the line-hole. It 

 is made of bone all in one piece, and is without lateral barbs. 

 И we compare it to the general Eskimo types established by 

 Murdoch, without keeping too narrowly to his special represen- 

 tation of the development of sealing harpoon heads (where great 

 stress is laid on the lateral barbs of the heads), we discover 

 the intere.sting fact that this type in its main features ror- 



•) Murdoch I, 218—222; Swenander 39—42. 

 *t Swenander -il 



