144 B GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Tur-seal spear. Spears and harpoons were doubtless in former times made of bone, 

 like those found in the shell heaps of Vancouver Island. At the 

 present day iron has been substituted. A species of harpoon is used 

 in the chase of the fur seal. It is generally made by the Haidas them- 

 selves from an old flat file. The extremity is sharpened to a blade-like 

 point, which is succeeded by a series of barbs on each side, sharply 

 thrown backward. The butt of the file is bored through, and a loop of 

 strong copper wire fixed to it so as to move freely. To this is attached 

 a strong cord of plaited sinew, to the extremity of which a bladder or 

 float is affixed. When in use, the butt end of the iron head is fixed in 

 a socket in the extremity of a long, light cedar pole, but easily detaches 

 itself when it is driven into the animal. The head of the harpoon 

 generally fits into a,wooden sheath made of two pieces fixed together 

 with bark lashing. 



■Salmon spear. The head of the.salmon spear consists of a sharp blade-like iron tip 

 to the base of which two pointed pieces of horn are lashed, the lashing 

 being thickly covered with spruce gum so as to offer no impediment 

 to the whole entering the fish. The length of the blade, with the horn 

 barbs, is about four inches. Between the pieces of horn fits the sharp- 

 ened end of a piece of wood, 7^ inches long, which increases gradually 

 in size till at its inner extremity it forms a flat leaf-shaped expansion, 

 which fits into a hollow of similar form in the end of a long light cedar 

 pole. The end of the pole is served with bark to prevent its splitting, 

 and the iron-tipped head is made fast to the intermediate wooden piece, 

 and that to the end of the pole by strong strings. When plunged in 

 the fish, the loose wooden piece no doubt first comes out from the end 

 of the pole, and with a slight increase of strain it comes away from 

 the barbed head, which thus j)ractically remains fixed to the end of the 

 pole by a foot or eighteen inches of cord. 



Fish-hooks. The fish hook is made substantially after the pattern general on the 



west coast, but owing to the want of the yew, it has. not the same 

 graceful shape with that of the Ahts and Makah Indians. In its primi- 

 tive form, among the Haidas, it consists either of a forked branch, of 

 suitable size, or of two pieces of wood lashed together so as to make 

 an acute angle with each other. To the upper piece, about the middle, 

 is fixed the string for the suspension of the whole, to the free or outer 

 end of the lower piece a pointed bone is lashed so as to project obliquely 

 backward, reaching to within a short distance of the upper piece. The 

 bone is now, however, generally replaced by an iron point, and in some 

 cases the whole hook is fashioned out of a piece of thin iron rod, bent 

 round and sharpened (Fig. 9). This hook is more particularly used in 

 halibut fishing. A large sized one in wood (Fig. 10) measures 10 inches 

 in length, with a distance of five and a half inches between the divergent 



