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
Fig. 231 is a toy model of the whale harpoon, No. 56562 [233], 18½
inches long, made of pine and ivory, and shows the manner of attaching
the floats, which are little blocks of spruce roughly whittled into
the shape of inflated sealskins. A piece of seal thong 13½ inches long
has its ends looped round the neck of the floats and the harpoon-line
is looped into a slit in the middle of this line.
[Illustration: FIG. 232.--Flint blade for whale harpoon.]
We collected thirteen heads for such harpoons, which have been in
actual use, of which two have flint blades like the one described, two
have brass blades, and the rest either blades of slate or else no
blades. The flint blades are either triangular like the one described
or lanceolate and are about 3 inches long exclusive of the tang. The
three separate flint blades which we obtained (Fig. 232, No. 56708
[114], from Utkiavwĭñ, is one of these, made of black flint) are about
1 inch shorter and were perhaps intended for walrus harpoons, though
we saw none of these with flint blades. They are all newly made for
the market.
[Illustration: FIG. 233.--Slate blade for whale harpoon.]
The slate blades of which we collected eleven, some old and some new,
besides those in the heads, are all triangular, with curved edges, as
in Fig. 233 (No. 56709 [139] from Utkiavwĭñ, made of soft purple
slate), except one new one, No. 56697_a_ [188_a_], which has the
corners cut off so as to give it a rhomboidal shape. The corners are
sometimes rounded off so that they are nearly heart-shaped. These
blades are usually about 2¾ inches long and 2 broad; two unusually
large ones are 3 inches long and nearly 2¼ broad, and one small one
2.1 by 1.6 inches, and are simply wedged into the blade slit without a
rivet. The brass blades are of the same shape.
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