HAKPOONS. 225 



"a great number of bone harpoons, more or less like this one [and that from 

 California] are to be seen in the British Museum, all from Tierra del Fuego 

 labelled Heads of Fishing-Spears used by the Natives of Tierra del Fucgo. 

 We thus see that these bone points are really fishing-harpoons. They are 

 alike both in length and shape, and there is therefore every reason to 

 assume that they were destined for nearly the same purpose. • But we are 

 not aware how they were used in Tierra del Fuego, whether they were shot 

 from a bow, thrown by the hand, or used for striking, because we have not 

 seen in the British Museum or elsewhere any specimen having a shaft." 

 To the above remarks of Professor Nilsson is added an important foot- 

 note, which we also copy, as follows : 



" Captain Werngren informs us that the savages in the islands of the Pacific are 

 in the habit of fishing sometimes -with hooks and at other times with well-made nets, 

 and that they occasionally shoot the Jish with arrows from their canoes ; when the fish 

 rise they pierce them with their javelins, then jump overboard and secure their prey. 

 It seems that the harpoons of this kind found in Scania may also have been used by 

 fishermen, while sitting in their boat, to shoot or transfix the fish, especially as these 

 harpoons have been discovered at the bottoms of bogs which have formerly been small 

 lakes, where the skeletons of gigantic pike are occasionally found, which may have 

 been proper objects of such fishing with harpoons." 



Harpoons of bone, such as above figured, are not common on the 

 Atlantic coast, but smaller ones have been occasionally found in the shell- 

 heaps. The Southern coast tribes used another material for making a simi- 

 lar weapon, and Mr. C. C. Jones, jr.,* quoting from Brickell's Natural His- 

 tory of North Carolina, informs us that "the North Carolina Indians have 

 Fish-gigs that are made of the Reeds or Hollow Canes; these they cut and 

 make very sharp, with two Beards, and taper at the Point like a Harpoon." 



Barbed harpoon-points made of bone are evidently of rare occur- 

 rence in Southern California and on the islands, for notwithstanding 

 many articles made of bone have been received from the later explora- 

 tions by Mr. Schumacher, we have only seen from California the har- 

 poon-point, figured above, and one other, also in the Smithsonian 

 collection, which was obtained at the same time. On the Northwestern 

 coast, implements of this character are in common use to this time, both as 

 javelin and arrow points. Sometimes these bone points are permanently 



* Antiquities of Southern Indians, p. 329. 

 15 I 



