HORN AND BONE IMPLEMENTS 299 



A harpoon head of deer horn, tolerably well preserved but 

 unfortunately broken at the lower extremity. The point and the 

 two barbs are carefully finished ; the perforation, sunk in from 

 both sides, is of irregular form. A cross-section above it would 

 form an elongated ellipse with a shorter axis of nearly half an inch. 

 Found by Mr F. IL Gushing in a shell heap in Onondaga county, 

 New York. 



Dr Rau goes on to say : 



It probably has been noticed that these pierced dart-heads have 

 all unilateral barbs ; those with barbs on both sides, it will be seen, 

 are not perforated, but may also, in part at least, have been detach- 

 able. Perhaps it is only owing to accident that none of the bilater- 

 ally barbed heads at my disposition is perforated. 



This is the writer's experience in the examination of a great num- 

 ber of specimens. But one bilateral harpoon has been submitted to 

 him with a perforation, and of this he had at first some doubts from 

 other unusual features. 



In E. G-. Squier's Antiquities of the State of New Y^ork, p. 124, 

 is mentioned " the point of a fish spear, made of the ulna of the 

 deer ; found in Livingston county." This appears to be the har- 

 poon which has long been in the state museum, and credited to 

 Avon. It is about 5-J inches long, has two barbs on one side, and a 

 half -circular notch in each edge toward the base. 



A somewhat rare form of harpoon has the ends alike, with barbs 

 pointing both ways. The natural thought would be that this pro- 

 vided for accidents. If one end were broken the other might be 

 used. Another purpose has been suggested, to which this might 

 be contributive at least. In Cave hunting, p. Ill, W. Boyd Daw- 

 kins figures a double-pointed harpoon from the Yictoria cave, 

 Yorkshire, Eng. There are three barbs on each edge, but two of 

 these turn one way, and the other in an opposite direction. Of 

 this implement Mr Dawkins said : 



The harpoon is a little more than 3 inches long, with the head 

 armed with two barbs on each side, and the base presenting a mode 

 of securing attachment to the handle, which has not before been 

 discovered in Britain. Instead of a mere projection to catch the 

 ligatures by which it was bound to the shaft, there is a well-cut 

 barb on either side, pointing in a contrary direction to those which 

 form the head. 



But few examples of this form have been found in New York, 



and but one has been reported in Canada. Fig. 235 is the smallest 



