445 



one of them are there slight vestiges of an attempt at smooth- 

 ing. These two implements have probably not been quite 

 flnished off. 



Compare with these implements inv. Amd. 104 and 105. 



As to the form and use of foreshafts in general, I beg to 

 give a quotation from 0. Mason ^): — 



"The foreshaft of a barbed harpoon is a more or less cylin- 

 drical or pear-shaped piece of heavy material, bone or ivory, fitted 

 on to the shaft, and having a socket in front to receive the tang 



of the barbed head the attachment of the foreshaft to the 



shaft is by means of a splice, a wedge-shaped tang and kerf, a 

 socket in the shaft fitting a projection on the foreshaft, or a socket 

 in the loose shaft fitting a projection on the shaft"; after vv^hich he 

 refers to two figures of foreshafts in E. W. Nelson's work on "The 

 Eskimo about Bering Strait" ^), one of which is of a type exactly 

 corresponding to the three from Amdrup's collection which have 

 just been described. Further on he speaks of foreshafts of toggle 

 harpoons ^): "The foreshaft of a harpoon is the working end of 

 the shaft, and is usually a block of bone or wood neatly fitted on. 



Foreshafts vary in material , in size and shape, from the 



delicate point of the sea-otter harpoon to the clumsy variety on the 

 Greenland whaling harpoon". 



Murdoch's description of the various foreshafts of the point 

 Barrow Eskimo fits in well with the form of inv. Amd. 73, 74, 

 75, except in the feature that the Alaska (Point Barrow) fore- 

 shaft 'is kept from slipping out by a little transverse ridge 

 on each side of the tang'^), from which it is evident that the 

 tang is bevelled from both sides (not as in those from North 

 East Greenland only from one side), and the transverse ridge 

 which connects the two slanting surfaces of the narrow sides 

 of the tang takes the place of the transverse shoulder I men- 

 tioned in the flat surface of the bevel of one of the tangs. 



'I Mason III, 199. 

 -) Nelson PI. 57, b, figs. 33, 34. 

 ') Mason III, 204. 



*) Murdoch I, 216, cf. fig. 204; of. Mason III, 302, fig. 92. 

 XÏTIII 29 



