574 
VOYAGE TO TEE 
CHAP. 
XIX. 
Oct. 
1827. 
harpoon in one that was dead, with a drag attached to it made of an 
inflated seal-skin. It must be extremely difficult for these people, 
with their slender means, to capture these enormous animals, and it 
must require considerable perseverance. The occupation, however, 
appears to be less hazardous than that of killing walrusses, which, by 
the devices upon the instruments, occasionally attack the caiacs. The 
implements for taking these animals are the same as described by 
Captain Parry. Seals are also captured in the manner described by 
him. Upon some of the bone implements there are correct representa- 
tions of persons creeping along the ice towards their prey, which ap- 
pears to have been decoyed by an inflated seal-skin placed near the edge 
of the ice ; an artifice frequently practised by the eastern tribes. These 
animals are also taken in very strong nets made of walrus-hide ; and 
another mode is by harpooning them with a dart about five feet in 
length, furnished with a barb, which is disengaged from its socket when 
it strikes the animal, and being fastened by a line to the centre of the 
staff, the harpoon acts as a drag. This instrument is discharged with a 
throwing board, which is easily used, and gives very great additional 
force to the dart, and in the hands of a skilful person may be sent to a 
considerable distance. The throwing board is mentioned also by Captain 
Parry, by Crantz, and others, and corresponds with the womoru of N ew 
Zealand. 
We noticed in the possession of a party to the northward of 
Kotzebue Sound a small ivory instrument, similar to the keipkuttuk of 
the Igloolik tribe. 
Birds are likewise struck with darts which resemble the nuguit of 
Greenland ; they are also caught in whalebone snares, and by having 
their flight arrested by a number of balls attached to thongs about two 
feet in length : they are sometimes shot with arrows purposely con- 
structed with blunt heads. 
The practice of firing at a mark appears to be one of their amuse- 
ments ; and judging from what we saw at Chamisso Island, there are 
some extraordinary performers in this way among the tribe. One day 
a diver was swimming at the distance of thirty yards from the beach, 
and a native was offered a reward if he would shoot it : he fired, but 
