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
I will now consider the variations of the different parts of these
harpoons in detail, beginning with the head. Our series is so large,
containing in all forty-eight heads, besides some spare blades, that
it probably gives a fair representation of the common variations. The
longest of this series is 6 inches long and the shortest 3½, but by
far the greater number are from 4½ to 5 inches long. Their proportions
are usually about as in the types figured, but the long head just
figured (No. 56772 [534]) is also unusually slender. Sheet brass is
the commonest material for the blade (thirty blades are of this
material), though iron or steel is sometimes used, and rarely, at
present, slate. There is one slate-bladed head in the series
(No. 56620 [199]) figured above, and four blades for such heads. The
blade is commonly of the shape of the type figured, triangular with
curved edges, varying from a rather long triangle like the slate blade
just mentioned to a rather short one with very strongly curved edges
like Fig. 215_a_ (No. 89750 [1038]), which is peculiar as the only
walrus harpoon head with a body of reindeer antler. It also has an
iron blade and a rivet of iron, not seldom with rounded basal angles
so as to be almost heart-shaped, like Fig. 215_b_ (No. 56621 [283]).
A less common shape of blade is lanceolate, with the base cut off
square as in Fig. 216_a_ (No. 89764 [940]). Only eight blades out of
the series are of this shape. A still more peculiar shape of blade, of
which we saw only one specimen, is shown in Fig. 216_b_ (No. 89790
[943]). This is made of brass. It was perhaps meant for an imitation
of the barbed blades used at the Mackenzie, of which I have already
spoken.
[Illustration: FIG. 215.--Typical walrus-harpoon heads. 1/2]
[Illustration: FIG. 216.--Typical walrus-harpoon heads. 1/2]
The blade, when of metal, is generally fastened in with a single
rivet. One only out of the whole number has two rivets, and three are
simply wedged into the blade slit. The slate blades appear never to
have been riveted; Nordenskiöld, however, figures a walrus harpoon
from Port Clarence[N335] with a jade blade riveted in. The rivet is
generally made of whalebone, but other materials are sometimes used.
For instance, in the series collected two have rivets of iron, two of
wood, and five of rawhide. The body is generally made of white walrus
ivory, (five of those collected are of hard bone, and one already
mentioned and figured, No. 89750 [1038], Fig. 215_a_, is of reindeer
antler), and the hexagonal shape, often with rounded edges, and the
line grooves continued to the tip, as in Fig. 217_a_, No. 89757 [947],
appears to be the commonest. Three out of the forty-eight have
four-sided bodies. It is unusual for the body barb to be bifurcated,
as is common farther south. Only three out of the forty-eight show
this peculiarity, of which No. 56613 [53], Fig. 217_b_, is an example.
[Footnote N335: Vega, vol. 2, p. 229, Fig. 3.]
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