27 
Barbed Bone Points 
Fourteen barbed harpoon points made of bone and entire, or practically 
so (Plate VI, figures 1-12), and forty-three fragments, were found in 
the heaps of the harbour. According to the catalogue of the Patterson 
collection, two, each with a hole through the tang, were found in the 
prehistoric cemetery. Patterson (a, page 235, and b, page 30) states 
that one nearly perfect 1 example was taken from the pit at this cemetery, 
and, according to the catalogue, two entire barbed points and a fragment 
of a third were found on the Millar farm. Two found in the heaps seem 
to be made of antler, but none of ivory. The range of size and shape 
of those made of bone is shown on Plate VI, figures 1-20, and Plate VII, 
figures 1, 2. 
In Nova Scotia as a whole, harpoon points made of bone are said 
to be uncommon, as there are not many in the collections in the Provincial 
Museum and Dalhousie University 2 , and some of these are made of ivory 
similar to points used by the Eskimo. But here again the apparent rarity 
may be due to methods of collecting rather than to real scarcity. 
The harpoon points exclusive of toggle points may be divided into 
three general classes : those with short barbs on one side made by shallow 
notches (Plate VI, figures 1-9); those with long barbs on one side made 
by deep notches (figures 10-14 and 16-20); and those with barbs on both 
sides (Plate VII, figures 1, 2). 
The shafts are flat or convex on both sides with a concavity in the 
middle of one side, due to the marrow canal in the bone (Plate VI, figures 
2-4, 6, 8, 10-12, 17). Their cross-section is like the longitudinal section 
of an almond (figures 1, 5, 7, 13, 14), 
The barbs are of five types: (1) those made by shallow notches on 
one edge (Plate VI, figure 1); (2) those produced by short, shallow, oblique 
notches, on each side of the edge (Plate VI, figures 2, 3); (3) those made 
by combining notches of types (1) and (2) (Plate VI, figures 4-8); (4) those 
made by notching or cutting away part of a narrow longitudinal ridge 
on the edge of the harpoon (Plate VI, figure 9); and (5) those made by 
deep notches cutting away about half of the harpoon shaft (Plate VI, 
figures 10, 11, 14). 
The notches are small in proportion to the barbs in the specimens on 
Plate VI, figures 1-8, and in nearly all of them the outer edges of the 
barbs are part of the original edge of the point. In one (figure 9) the 
parts of the edge between the three groups of barbs, and between each 
barb of the two lower groups, were removed by long cuts instead of notch- 
ing. In specimens with holes through the tang (Plate VI, figures 10-12), 
and in those probably of this class (Plate VI, figures 14 and 18), the notches 
are about equal in size to the barbs and the barbed edge retains little or 
none of the original edge of the object. 
The tangs of most of the harpoon heads decrease in width and thick- 
ness toward the base and are more or less wedge-shaped, as would be desir- 
able to fit them into a socket or the split end of a shaft. The specimen 
illustrated on Plate VII, figure 11, is a basal fragment of what was prob- 
i Cf. Dawson (a), p. 19 and Fig. 1 of supplement, and Dawson (b), Fig. 27. 
*Cf. Piers (a), p. 116. 
62185—3 
