Ethnological results of the Point Barrow expedition: Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-1888, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1892, pages 3-442Murdoch, John
History
Ethnological results of the Point Barrow expedition: Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-1888, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1892, pages 3-442
Murdoch, John
Eskimos -- Alaska -- Barrow, Point, Region
We collected six of these walrus harpoons complete and forty-two
separate heads. Of these, No. 56770 [534], Fig. 214_a_, has the most
typical shaft and loose shaft. The shaft is of spruce 71 inches long,
roughly rounded, and tapering from a diameter of 1½ inches at the tip
to 0.8 at the butt. The foreshaft is of white walrus ivory, 6.7 inches
long, exclusive of the wedge-shaped tang which fits into a cleft in
the tip of the shaft. It is somewhat club-shaped, being 1.6 inches in
diameter at the tip and tapering to 1.3 just above the butt, which
expands to the diameter of the shaft, and is separated from the tang
by a square transverse shoulder. The shaft and foreshaft are fastened
together by a whipping of broad seal thong, put on wet, one end
passing through a hole in the foreshaft one-quarter inch from the
shaft, and kept from slipping by a low transverse ridge on each side
of the tang. In the tip of the foreshaft is a deep, round socket to
receive the loose shaft, which is a tapering rod of walrus ivory 4.4
inches long, shouldered off at the butt, which is 0.7 inch in
diameter, to a blunt, rounded tang 0.9 inch long. It fits loosely into
the foreshaft up to the shoulder, and is secured by a piece of narrow
seal thong which passes through a transverse hole one-half inch above
the shoulder. The end is spliced to the standing part with double
slits about 6 inches from the loose shaft, and the other end makes a
couple of turns outside of the lashing on the shaft mentioned above
and is secured with two half-hitches.
[Illustration: FIG. 214.--Walrus harpoons. 1/12 1/15]
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