_Seal darts._--The Eskimo of nearly all localities use a dart or small harpoon to capture the smaller marine animals, with a loose, barbed head of bone fitted into a socket in the end of the shaft, to which it is attached by a line of greater or less length. It is always contrived so that when the head is struck into the quarry, the shaft is detached from the head and acts as a drag upon the animal. This is effected by attaching an inflated bladder to the shaft, or else by attaching the line with a martingale so that the shaft is dragged sideways through the water. Nearly all Eskimo except those of Point Barrow, as shown in the National Museum collections and the figures in Crantz[N321] and Rink[N322], use weapons of this kind of considerable size, adapted not only to the capture of the small seals (_Phoca vitulina_ and _P. fœtida_), but also to the pursuit of the larger seals, the narwhal and beluga. At Point Barrow, however, at the present day, they employ only a small form of this dart, not over 5 feet long, with a little head, adapted only for holding the smallest seals. That they formerly used the larger weapon is shown by our finding a single specimen of the head of such a spear, No. 89374 [1281] Fig. 201. It is of hard, compact bone, impregnated with oil, 8.1 inches long. The flat shank is evidently intended to fit into a socket. The two holes through the widest part of the shank are for attaching the line. [Footnote N320: Prehistoric fishing, Figs. 94 and 95, p. 73.] [Footnote N321: History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 147, Pl. V, Figs. 6 and 7.] [Footnote N322: Tales, etc., Pl. opposite p. 12 (“bladder arrow”).] [Illustration: FIG. 201.--Bone dart head. 1/3]