358 



responds to the harpoon heads which are used in Alaska for 

 hunting whales, walruses and the larger kinds of seals. Within 

 this type, too, some variation occurs (note particularly the 

 varying use of blades placed at right angles to the line-hole, 

 and blades which lie in the same plane), but it is just the 

 whale harpoon head, which Murdoch^) regards as having pre- 

 served certain antique features to a greater extent than any of 

 the others, which has as a general rule a high and narrow 

 body flattened laterally with a basal barb in the median line, 

 at right angles to the line-hole, and without lateral barbs 

 — on the other hand always with an inserted blade, but in- 

 variably and obligatorily a stone blade, not a metal blade. The 

 basal barb of the whale harpoon head appears always to be 

 undivided; the walrus harpoon head on the other hand often 

 has its spur bifurcated, but in other respects resembles the 

 larger whahng harpoon. The model of whaling harpoon from 

 Baffins Land given by Boas^) combines most of these features 

 with some new ones. 



The harpoon heads found in North East Greenland and 

 now in the possession of European museums amount up to 

 date, as far as I know, to 30 in number. In Amdrup's col- 

 lection there are 9 in all, in Ryder's 3, in Nathorst's 15, in 

 Koldewey's 3. But of these there is only one which has a 

 barb on the fore part of the head (belonging to inv. Ryder ^), 

 and what is more, this barb is quite unlike the lateral barbs 

 of the heads from West Greenland. All the other North East 

 Greenland heads are without lateral barbs, having only basal 

 barbs, undivided or two-pronged, always placed on the upper 

 side of the head and produced by a concave bevelling in the 

 lower part of the base. 



Out of the 30 heads only 10 have a slit for the insertion 



M Murdoch I, 239—240; Mason III, 273. 

 2) Boas 1, 500, flg. 436. 

 8) Ryder 314, fig. 13 b. 



