_Floats._--I have already spoken of the floats (apotû´kpûñ) of
inflated sealskin used in capturing the whale and walrus. We obtained
one specimen, No. 73578 [538] Fig. 249. This is the whole skin, except
the head, of a male rough seal (Phoca fœtida), with the hair out. The
carcass was carefully removed without making any incision except round
the neck and a few inches down the throat, and skinned to the very
toes, leaving the claws on. All natural or accidental apertures are
carefully sewed up, except the genital opening, into which is inserted
a ring of ivory, which serves as a mouthpiece for inflating the skin
and is corked with a plug of wood. The cut in the throat is carefully
sewed up, and the neck puckered together, and wrapped with seal thong
into a slender shank about 1 inch long, leaving a flap of skin which
is wrapped round a rod of bone 4 inches long and 1 in diameter, set
across the shank, and wound with thong. This makes a handle for
looping on the harpoon line.
[Illustration: FIG. 249.--Seal skin float. 1/12]
All the floats used at Point Barrow are of the same general pattern as
this, and are generally made of the skin of the rough seal, though
skins of the harbor seal (P. vitulina) are sometimes used. One of
these floats is attached to the walrus harpoon, but two are used in
whaling.[N346] Five or six floats are carried in each boat, and are
inflated before starting out. I have seen them used for seats during a
halt on the ice, when the boat was being taken out to the “lead.” The
use of these large floats is not peculiar to Point Barrow. They are
employed by all Eskimo who pursue the larger marine mammals.
[Footnote N346: I learn from our old interpreter, Capt. E.P.
Herendeen, who has spent three years in whaling at Point Barrow
since the return of the expedition, that a third float is also
used. It is attached by a longer line than the others, and serves
as a sort of “telltale,” coming to the surface some time ahead of
the whale.]
_Flipper toggles._--We collected two pairs of peculiar implements, in
the shape of ivory whales about 5 inches long, with a perforation in
the belly through which a large thong could be attached. We understood
that they were to be fastened to the ends of a stout thong and used
when a whale was killed to toggle his flippers together so as to keep
them in place while towing him to the ice, by cutting holes in the
flippers and passing the ivory through. We unfortunately never had an
opportunity of verifying this story. Neither pair is new. Fig. 250_a_
represents a pair of these implements (kă´gotĭñ) (No. 56580 [227]).
They are of white walrus ivory. In the middle of each belly is
excavated a deep, oblong cavity about three-fourths of an inch long
and one-half wide, across the middle of which is a stout transverse
bar for the attachment of the line. One is a “bow-head” whale (Balæna
mysticetus), 4½ inches long, and the other evidently intended for a
“California gray” (Rhachinectes glaucus). It has light blue glass
beads inserted for eyes and is the same length as the other.
Fig. 250 (No. 56598 [407]) is a similar pair, which are both
“bowheads” nearly 5 inches long. Both have cylindrical plugs of ivory
inserted for eyes, and are made of a piece of ivory so old that the
surface is a light chocolate color. The name, kăgotĭñ, means literally
“a pair of toggles.”
_Harpoon boxes (u´dlun or u´blun, literally “a nest.”)_--The slate
harpoon blades already described were very apt to be lost or broken,
so they always carried in the boat a supply of spare blades. These
were kept in a small box carved out of a block of soft wood, in the
shape of the animal to be pursued.
[Illustration: FIG. 250.--Flipper toggles. 2/3]
Fig. 251_a_ represents one of these boxes (No. 56505 [138]) intended
for spare blades for the whale harpoon. This is rather neatly carved
from a single block of soft wood, apparently spruce, though it is very
old and much weathered, in the shape of a “bowhead” whale, 9½ inches
long. The ends of the flukes are broken short off, and show traces of
having been mended with wooden pegs or dowels. The right eye is
indicated by a simple incision, but a tiny bit of crystal is inlaid
for the left. Two little bits of crystal are also inlaid in the middle
of the back. The belly is flat and excavated into a deep triangular
cavity, with its base just forward of the angle of the mouth and the
apex at the “small.” It is beveled round the edge, with a shoulder at
the base and apex, and is covered with a flat triangular piece of wood
beveled on the under face to fit the edge of the cavity. About half of
one side of the cover has been split off and mended on with two
“stitches” of whalebone fiber. The cover is held on by three strings
of seal thong passing through holes in each corner of the cover and
secured by a knot in the end of each string. They then pass through
three corresponding holes in the bottom of the cavity, leaving outside
of the back two ends 7 inches and one 15 long, which are tied
together. The cover can be lifted wholly off and then drawn back into
its place by pulling the string.
[Illustration: FIG. 251.--Boxes for harpoon heads. 1/3]
We collected seven such whale-harpoon boxes, usually about 9 to 9¾
inches long. Nearly all have bits of crystal, amber, or pyrite, inlaid
for the eyes and in the middle of the back, and the cover is generally
rigged in the way described. No. 56502 [198], from Utkiavwĭñ, is a
large whale, a foot long, and has the tail bent up, while the animal
is usually represented as if lying still. It has good-sized sky-blue
beads inlaid for the eyes.
Fig. 251_b_ (No. 89733 [1161], from Nuwŭk) represents a small box 4⅓
inches long, probably older than the others, and the only one not
carved into the shape of a whale. It is roughly egg-shaped and has no
wooden cover to the cavity, which is covered with a piece of deerskin,
held on by a string of seal thong wrapped three times around the body
in a rough, deep groove, with the end tucked under. In this box are
five slate blades for the whale harpoon.
We also collected two boxes for walrus harpoons made in the shape of
the walrus, with ivory or bone tusks. No. 89732 [860], Fig. 251_c_,
from Nuwŭk, is old, and 7 inches long, and has two oval bits of ivory,
with holes bored to represent the pupils, inlaid for the eyes. There
is no cover, but the cavity is filled with a number of slate blades,
carefully packed in whalebone shavings. There is a little eyebolt of
ivory at each end of the cavity. One end of a bit of sinew braid is
tied to the anterior of these, and the other carried down through the
hinder one, and then brought up and fastened round the body with a
marling hitch. The other, No. 56489 [127], is new and rather roughly
made, 5 inches long and painted all over with red ocher. It has a
cover, but no strings.
No. 56501 [142], Fig. 251_d_, from Utkiavwĭñ, is for carrying harpoon
blades for the chase of the bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus), and is
neatly carved into the shape of that animal. It is 7.4 inches long and
has ivory eyes like the walrus box, No. 89732 [860]. The cover is
fitted to the cavity like those of the whale boxes, but is held on by
one string only, a piece of seal thong about 3 feet long passing
through the middle of the cover and out at a hole on the left side,
about one-fourth inch from the cavity. The box is filled with raveled
rope-yarns. Fig. 251_e_ (No. 89730 [981], from Utkiavwĭñ) is like
this, but very large, 9.3 inches long. The cover is thick and a little
larger than the cavity, beveled on the upper face and notched on each
side to receive the string, which is a bit of sinew braid fastened to
two little ivory hooks, one on each side of the body. It is fastened
to the right hook, carried across and hooked around the left-hand one,
then carried over and hooked round the other, and secured by tucking a
bight of the end under the last part. The box contains several slate
blades. We also collected one other large seal box (No. 89731 [859],
from Nuwŭk), very roughly carved, and 9.8 inches long. The cover is
fitted into the cavity and held on by a narrow strip of whalebone
running across in a transverse groove in the cover and through a hole
in each side of the box.
_Nets (ku´bra)._--The smaller seals are captured in large-meshed nets
of rawhide. We brought home one of these, No. 56756 [109], Figs
252_a_-252_b_ (detail of mesh). This is a rectangular net, eighteen
meshes long and twelve deep, netted of fine seal thong with the
ordinary netting knot. The length of the mesh is 14 inches.
[Illustration: FIG. 252.--Seal net. 1/36 1/4]
Such nets are set under the ice in winter, or in shoal water along the
shore by means of stakes in summer. In the ordinary method of setting
the net under the ice two small holes are cut through the ice the
length of the net apart, and between them in the same straight line is
cut a third large enough to permit a seal to be drawn up through it.
A line with a plummet on the end is let down through one of the small
holes, and is hooked through the middle hole, with a long slender pole
of willow, often made of several pieces spliced together, with a small
wooden hook on the end. The line is then detached from the plummet and
fastened to one upper corner of the net, and a second line is let down
through the other small hole and made fast in the same way to the
other upper corner. By pulling on these lines the net is drawn down
through the middle and stretched like a curtain under the ice, while a
line at the middle serves to haul it up again. The end lines are but
loosely made fast to lumps of ice, so that when a seal strikes the net
nothing hinders his wrapping it completely around him in his struggles
to escape. When the hunter, who is usually watching his net, thinks
the seal is sufficiently entangled he hauls him up through the large
hole and sets the net again.
I had no opportunity of observing whether any weights or plummets were
used to keep down the lower edge of the net. These nets are now
universally employed, but one native spoke of a time “long ago” when
there were no nets and they captured seals with the spear (u´nɐ)
alone. The net was used in seal catching in Dr. Simpson’s time, though
he makes but a casual reference to it,[N347] and Beechey found seal
nets at Kotzebue Sound in 1826.[N348] The net is very generally used
for sealing among the Eskimo of western America and in Siberia. We
observed seal nets set with stakes along the shore of the sandspit at
Plover Bay, and Nordenskiöld speaks of seal nets “set in summer among
the ground ices along the shore,”[N349] and at open leads in the
winter, but gives no description of the method of setting these nets
beyond mentioning the “long pole which was used in setting the
net,”[N350] as none of his party ever witnessed the seal
fishery.[N351] I am informed by Mr. W. H. Dall that the winter nets in
Norton Sound are not set under the ice as at Point Barrow, but with
stakes in shoal water wherever there are open holes in the ice. “Ice
nets” are spoken of as in use for sealing in Greenland, but I have
been able to find no description of them. As they are not spoken of by
either Egede or Crantz I am inclined to believe that they were
introduced by the Europeans.[N352] Mr. L. M. Turner informs me that
such is the case at Ungava Bay on the southern shore of Hudson Strait,
where they use a very long net set under the ice very much as at Point
Barrow. I can find no mention of the use of seal nets among any other
of the eastern Eskimo.
[Footnote N347: Op. cit., p. 262.]
It is well known that seals have a great deal of curiosity, and are
easily attracted by any unusual sounds, especially if they are gentle
and long-continued. It is therefore easy to entice them into the nets
by making such noises, for instance, gentle whistling, rattling on the
ice with the pick, and so forth. Two special implements are also used
for this purpose. The first kind I have called:
[Footnote N348: Voyage, pp. 295, 574.]
[Footnote N349: Vega, vol. 2, p. 108.]
[Footnote N350: Ibid., p. 98.]
[Footnote N351: See also the reference to Hooper’s Corwin Report,
quoted below under Hunting.]
[Footnote N352: See, however, the writer’s paper in the American
Anthropologist, vol. 1, p. 333.]
_Seal calls_ (adrigautĭn).--This implement consists of three or four
claws mounted on the end of a short wooden handle, and is used to make
a gentle noise by scratching on the ice. It is a common implement,
though I never happened to see it in use. We obtained six specimens,
of which No. 56555 [90] Fig. 253_a_, is the type. It is 11½ inches
long. The round handle is of ash, the claws are those of the bearded
seal, secured by a lashing of sinew braid, with the end brought down
on the under side to a little blunt, backward-pointing hook of ivory,
set into the wood about 1 inch from the base of the arms.
Fig. 253_b_ (No. 56557 [93] from Utkiavwĭñ is 9½ inches long and has
four prongs. The haft is of spruce, and instead of an ivory hook there
is a round-headed stud of the same material, which is driven wholly
through the wood, having the point cut off flush with the upper
surface. It has a lanyard of seal twine knotted into the hole in the
haft. The other two specimens of this pattern, Nos. 56556 [100] and
56558 [51] have each three claws, and hafts of soft wood, painted with
red ocher, with lanyards, and are respectively 10.4 and 10.7 inches
long. One has an ivory hook, but the other in place of this has a
small iron nail, and is ornamented with a medium-sized sky-blue glass
bead inlaid in the back. The other two are both new and small, being
respectively 7.5 and 7.6 inches long. The hafts are made of reindeer
antler and have only two prongs. No. 89467 [1312] from Utkiavwĭñ, has
the haft notched on each side, and has an irregular stud of bone for
securing the lashing.
[Illustration: FIG. 253.--Scratchers for decoying seals.]
No. 89468 [1354], Fig. 253_c_, from Utkiavwĭñ, has no stud and the
claws are simply held on by a slight lashing of twisted sinew. Both of
these were made for the market, but may be models of a form once used.
There are two old seal calls in the Museum from near St. Michaels,
made of a piece of reindeer antler, apparently the spreading brow
antler, in which the sharp points of the antler take the place of
claws. The use of this implement, as shown by Mr. Nelson’s collection,
extends or extended from Point Barrow to Norton Sound. He collected
specimens from St. Lawrence Island and Cape Wankarem in Siberia.
Nordenskiöld speaks of the use of this implement at Pitlekaj and
figures a specimen.[N353] The other instrument appears to be less
common. I have called it a seal rattle.
[Footnote N353: Vega, vol. 2, p. 117, Fig. 3.]
_Seal rattle._--We obtained only two specimens, No. 56533 [409], which
seem to be a pair. Fig. 254 is one of these. It is of cottonwood and 4
inches long, roughly carved into the shape of a seal’s head and
painted red, with two small transparent blue glass beads inlaid for
the eyes. The neat becket of seal thong consists of three or four
turns with the end wrapped spirally around them. The staple on which
the ivory pendants hang is of iron. This is believed to be a rattle to
be shaken on the ice by a string tied to the becket for the purpose of
attracting seals to the ice net. It was brought in for sale at a time
during our first year when we were very busy with zoological work, and
as something was said about “nĕtyĭ” and “kubra” (“seal” and “net”) the
collector concluded that they must be floats for seal nets, and they
were accordingly catalogued as such and laid away. We never happened
to see another specimen, and as these were sent home in 1882 we
learned no more of their history. The late Dr. Emil Bessels, however,
on my return called my attention to the fact that in the museum at
Copenhagen there is a single specimen very similar to these, which was
said to have been used in the manner described above. It came from
somewhere in eastern America. There is one, he told me, in the British
Museum from Bering Strait. The National Museum contains several
specimens collected by Mr. Nelson at Point Hope. It is very probable
that this is the correct explanation of the use of these objects, as
it assigns a function to the ivory pendants which would otherwise be
useless. They have been called “dog bells,” but the Eskimo, at Point
Barrow, at least, are not in the habit of marking their dogs in any
way.
[Illustration: FIG. 254.--Seal rattle. 1/2]
_Seal indicators._--When watching for a seal at his breathing hole a
native inserts in the hole a slender rod of ivory, which is held
loosely in place by a cross piece or a bunch of feathers on the end.
When the seal rises he pushes up this rod, which is so light that he
does not notice it, and thus warns the hunter when to shoot or strike
with his spear. Most of the seal hunting was done at such a distance
from the station that I remember only one occasion when this implement
was seen in use. We collected two specimens, of which No. 56507 [104],
Fig. 255_a_, will serve as the type. It is of walrus ivory, 14½ inches
long and 0.3 in diameter, with a small lanyard of sinew. The curved
cross piece of ivory, 1⅓ inches long, is inserted into a slot
one-fourth of an inch from the end and secured by a little treenail of
wood.
Fig. 255_b_ (No. 89454 [1114], from Nuwŭk) is a similar indicator, 13½
inches long and flat (0.3 inch wide and 0.1 thick). The upper end is
carved into scallops for ornament and has a small eye into which was
knotted a bit of whalebone fiber. The tip is beveled off with a
concave bevel on both faces to a sharp edge, so that it can be used
for a “feather setter” (ĭgugwau) in feathering arrows. Such implements
are mentioned in most popular accounts of the Eskimo of the east, and
Capt. Parry describes it from personal observation at Iglulik.[N354]
I have been unable to find any mention of its use in western America,
and have seen no specimens in the National Museum.
[Illustration: FIG. 255.--Seal indicators. 1/4]
_Sealing stools._--When a native is watching a seal-hole he frequently
has to stand for hours motionless on the ice. His feet would become
exceedingly cold, in spite of the excellence of his foot covering,
were it not for a little three-legged stool about 10 inches high upon
which he stands. This stool is made of wood, with a triangular top
just large enough to accommodate a man’s feet, with the heels together
over one leg of the stool, and the other two legs supporting the toes
of each foot, respectively. The stool is neatly made, and is as light
as is consistent with strength. It is universally employed and carried
by the hunter, slung on the gun cover with the legs projecting behind.
[Illustration: FIG. 256.--Sealing stool. 1/4]
When the hunter has a long time to wait he generally squats down so as
almost to sit on his heels, holding his gun and spear in readiness,
and wholly covered with one of the deerskin cloaks already described.
They sometimes use this stool to sit on when waiting for ducks to fly
over the ice in the spring.
[Footnote N354: Second Voyage, p. 510; also pl. opposite p. 550,
Fig. 17.]
We brought home two specimens of this common object (nĭgawaúotĭn). No.
89887 [1411], Fig. 250, will serve as the type. The top is of spruce,
8¾ inches long and 10¾ wide. The upper surface is flat and smooth, the
lower broadly beveled off on the edges and deeply excavated in the
middle, so that there are three straight ridges joining the three
legs, each of which stands in the middle of a slight prominence. The
object of cutting away the wood in this way is to make the stool
lighter, leaving it thick only at the points where the pressure comes.
The large round hole in the middle, near the front, is for convenience
in picking it up and hanging it on the cache frame, where it is
generally kept. The three legs are set into holes at each corner,
spreading out so as to stand on a base larger than the top of the
stool. Where they fit into the holes they are 0.7 inch in diameter,
tapered slightly to fit the hole, and then tapering down to a diameter
of one-third inch at the tip. On the under side of the top they are
braced with a lashing of stout seal thong. A split on the right-hand
edge of the top has been mended, as usual, with a stitch of whalebone.
This stool is quite old and has been actually used.
No. 89888 [1412], from the same village, is new and a little larger,
but differs from the type only in having a triangular instead of a
round hole in the top and no lashing. Those of our party who landed at
Sidaru September 7, 1881, saw one of these stools hanging up in the
then vacant village, and there is a precisely similar stool in the
Museum from the Anderson region.
MacFarlane, in his manuscript notes, describes the use of these stools
as follows: “Both tribes kill seals under ice; that is, they watch for
them at their holes (breathing) or wherever open water appears. At the
former they generally build a small snow house somewhat like a
sentinel’s box, on the bottom of which they fix a portable
three-cornered stool, made of wood. They stand on this and thereby
escape getting cold feet, as would be the case were they to remain for
any time on ice or snow in the same immovable position.” Beyond this I
find no mention of the use of any such a utensil, east or west, except
in Greenland, where, however, they used a sort of one-legged chair to
sit on, as well as a footstool, which Egede pictures (Pl. 9) as oval,
with very short legs.[N355]
[Footnote N355: “They first look out for Holes, which the Seals
themselves make with their Claws about the Bigness of a Halfpenny;
after they have found any Hole, they seat themselves near it upon
a Chair, made for the Purpose; and as soon as they perceive the
Seal coming up to the Hole and put his snout into it for some Air,
they immediately strike him with a small Harpoon.” Egede,
Greenland, p. 104.
“The seals themselves make sometimes holes in the Ice, where they
come and draw breath; near such a hole a Greenlander seats himself
on a stool, putting his feet on a lower one to keep them from the
cold. Now when the seal comes and puts its nose to the hole, he
pierces it instantly with his harpoon.” Crantz, History of
Greenland, vol. 1, p. 156.]
_Seal drags (uksiu´tiñ.)_--Every seal hunter carries with him a line
for dragging home his game, consisting of a stout thong doubled in a
bight about 18 inches long, with an ivory handle or knob at the other
end. The bight is looped into an incision in the seal’s lower jaw,
while the knob serves for attaching a longer line or the end of a
dog’s harness. The seal is dragged on his back and runs as smoothly as
a sled. We collected eight of these drag lines, from which I have
selected No. 56624 [44], Fig. 257_a_, as the type.
[Illustration: FIG. 257.--Seal drags and handles. 1/2]
This consists of a stout thong of rawhide (the skin of the bearded
seal) 0.3 inch wide and 37 inches long, and doubled in a bight so that
one end is about 2½ inches the longer. These ends are fastened into a
handle of walrus ivory, consisting of three pieces, namely: a pair of
neatly carved mittens, respectively 1.9 and 1.8 inches long, put
together wrist to wrist with the palms up; and lying across the joint
above, a little seal 1¼ inches long, belly down. A hole runs through
each wrist and through the belly of the seal. The mittens are
ornamented on the back with a blackened incised pattern, and the seal
has blue glass beads for eyes and blackened incised spots on the back.
The longer end of the thong runs up through the right mitten, across
through the seal, and down through the left mitten. It is then passed
through a slit 1 inch from the end of the shorter part and slit
itself. Through this slit is passed the bight of the thong, all drawn
up taut and seized with sinew braid.
No. 89467 [755], from Utkiavwĭñ, is a similar drag, put together in
much the same way, but it has the mittens doweled together with two
wooden pins, and a seal’s head with round bits of wood inlaid for
eyes, ears, and nostrils, in place of the seal. The longitudinal
perforation in this head shows that it was originally strung
lengthwise on one of these lines. The “double slit splice” of the two
ends of the thong is worked into a complicated round knot, between
which and the handle the two parts of the line are confined by a tube
of ivory 1 inch long, ornamented with deeply incised patterns. Fig.
257_b_ is the upper part of a line (No. 56622 [36], from Utkiavwĭñ),
with a similar tube 1¾ inches long, and a handle carved from a single
piece into a pair of mittens like the others.
No. 56625 [81], also from Utkiavwĭñ, is almost exactly similar to the
one first described, but has the seal belly up. Fig. 257_c_ (No. 89470
[1337], from the same village) has a seal 2.3 inches long for the
handle, and No. 56626 [212], from Utkiavwĭñ, is like it. No. 89469_a_,
[755_a_] Fig. 257_d_, from Utkiavwĭñ, has for a handle the head of a
bearded seal 1.6 inches long, neatly carved from walrus ivory, with
round bits of wood inlaid for the eyes and ears. It is perforated
longitudinally from the chin to the back of the head, and a large hole
at the throat opens into this. The longer end of the thong is passed
in at the chin and out at the back of the head; the shorter, in at the
back of the head and out at the throat; the two ends brought together
between the standing parts and all stopped together with sinew braid.
No. 56627 [45], Fig. 257_e_, has a handle made of two ivory bears’
heads, very neatly carved, with circular bits of wood inlaid for eyes,
and perforated like the seal’s head just described. The thong is
doubled in the middle and each end passed through one of the heads
lengthwise, so as to protrude about 7 inches. About 4 inches of end is
then doubled over, thrust through the throat hole of the opposite
head, and brought down along the standing parts. All the parts are
stopped together with sinew braid. This makes a small becket above the
handle.
We collected seven knobs for these drag lines, of which six are seals’
heads and one a bear’s. They are all made of walrus ivory, apparently
each a single tooth, and not a piece of tusk, and are about 1½ inches
to 2 inches long. They are generally carved with considerable skill,
and often have the ears, roots of the whiskers, nostrils, and outline
of the mouth incised and blackened, while small blue beads, bits of
ivory, or wood are inlaid for the eyes. Implements of this sort are in
common use among Eskimo generally wherever they are so situated as to
be able to engage in seal-hunting. Mr. Nelson’s collection contains
specimens from as far south as Cape Darby.
_Whalebone wolf-killers (ĭsĭbru)._--Before the introduction of the
steel traps, which they now obtain by trade, these people used a
peculiar contrivance for catching the wolf. This consists of a stout
rod of whalebone about 1 foot long and one-half inch broad, with a
sharp point at each end. One of these was folded lengthwise in the
form of a Z,[N356] wrapped in blubber (whale’s blubber was used,
according to our informant, Nĭkawáalu), and frozen solid. It was then
thrown out on the snow where the wolf could find and swallow it. The
heat of the animal’s body would thaw out the blubber, releasing the
whalebone, which would straighten out and pierce the walls of the
stomach, thus causing the animal’s death. Nikawáalu says that a wolf
would not go far after swallowing one of these blubber balls.
[Footnote N356: It is twisted into “a compact helical mass like a
watch-spring” in the Hudson Bay region. Schwatka, “Nimrod in the
North,” p. 133. See also Klutschak, “Als Eskimo,” pp. 194, 195.]
[Illustration: FIG. 258.--Whalebone wolf-killers. 1/4]
We collected four sets of these contrivances, one set containing seven
rods and the others four each. Fig. 258_a_ gives a good idea of the
shape of one of these. It belongs to a set of seven, No. 89538 [1229],
Fig. 258_b_, from Utkiavwĭñ, which are old and show the marks of
having been doubled up. It is 12½ inches long, 0.4 broad, and 0.2
thick. The little notches on the opposite edges of each end were
probably to hold a lashing of sinew which kept the folded rod in shape
while the blubber was freezing, being cut by thrusting a knife through
the partially frozen blubber, as is stated by Schwatka.[N357] Two of
the sets are new, but made like the others.
[Footnote N357: “Nimrod in the North,” p. 133.]
[Footnote N358: See Gilder, Schwatka’s Search, p. 225; see also,
Klutschak, “Als Eskimo,” etc., pp. 194-5, where the whalebones are
said to have little knives on the ends.]
This contrivance is also used by the Eskimo of Hudson Bay[N358] and at
Norton Sound, where, according to Petroff,[N359] the rods are 2 feet
long and wrapped in seal blubber. The name ĭsĭ´bru appears to be the
same as the Greenlandic (isavssok), found only in the diminutive
isavssoraĸ, a provincial name for the somewhat similar sharp-pointed
stick baited with blubber and used for catching gulls. The diminutive
form of this word in Greenlandic may indicate that their ancestors
once used the large wolf-killer, when they lived where wolves were
found. The definition of uju´kuaĸ, the ordinary word for the
gull-catcher (see below)--in the Grønlandske Ordbog--is the only
evidence we have of the use of this contrivance in Greenland. This is
one of the several cases in which we only learn of the occurrence of
customs, etc., noted at Point Barrow, in Greenland, by finding the
name of the thing in question defined in the dictionary.
[Footnote N359: Report, etc., p. 127.]
_Traps._--Foxes are caught in the winter by deadfalls or steel traps
(nänori´a), set generally along the beach, where the foxes are
wandering about in search of carrion thrown up by the sea. In setting
the deadfalls a little house about 2 feet high is built, in which is
placed the bait of meat or blubber. A heavy log of driftwood is placed
across the entrance, with one end raised high enough to allow a fox to
pass under it, and supported by a regular “figure of four” of sticks.
The fox can not get at the bait without passing under the log, and in
doing so he must touch the trigger of the “figure of four” (#4#),
which brings down the log across his back. When a steel trap is used
it is not baited itself, but buried in the snow at the entrance of a
similar little house, so that the fox can not reach the bait without
stepping on the plate of the trap and thus springing it. Many foxes
are taken with such traps in the course of the winter.
The boys use a sort of snare for catching setting birds. This is
simply a strip of whalebone made into a slip-noose, which is set over
the eggs, with the end fastened to the ground, so that the bird is
caught by the leg. Once or twice, when there was a light snow on the
beach, we saw a native catching the large gulls as follows: He had a
stick of hard wood, pointed at each end, to the middle of which was
fastened one end of a stout string about 6 feet long. The other end
was secured to a stake driven into the frozen gravel, and the stick
wrapped with blubber and laid on the beach, with the string carefully
hidden in the snow. The gull came along, swallowed the lump of
blubber, and as soon as he tried to fly away the string made the sharp
stick turn like a toggle across his gullet, the points forcing their
way through, so that he was held fast. A similar contrivance, but
somewhat smaller and made of bone, is used at Norton Sound for
catching gulls and murres, a number of them being attached to a trawl
line and baited with fish. Mr. Nelson collected a large number of
these.[N360] In regard to the use of this contrivance in Greenland,
see above under “wolf-killers.”
[Footnote N360: See Dr. Rau’s Prehistoric Fishing, p. 12. Fig. 2,
p. 13, represents one of these from Norton Sound, and Figs. 3-8,
a series of similar implements from the bone caves of France.]
_Snow-goggles._--The wooden goggles worn to protect the eyes from
snow-blindness may be considered as accessories to hunting, as they
are worn chiefly by those engaged in hunting or fishing, especially
when deer-hunting in the spring on the snow-covered tundra or when in
the whaleboats among the ice. They are simply a wooden cover for the
eyes, admitting the light by a narrow horizontal slit, which allows
only a small amount of light to reach the eye and at the same time
gives sufficient range of vision. Such goggles are universally
employed by the Eskimos everywhere[N361] except in Siberia, where they
use a simple shade for the eyes.[N362]
[Footnote N361: See Parry, 2d Voyage, p. 547, Iglulik and Hudson
Strait, pl. opposite p. 548, Fig. 4, and pl. opposite p. 14;
Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 234; Dall, Alaska,
p. 195, figure (Norton Sound); also MacFarlane, MS., No. 2929
(Anderson River).]
[Footnote N362: Nordenskiöld, Vega, Vol. 2, p. 99.]
We brought home four pairs of these goggles (í´dyĭgûñ), of which No.
89894 [1708], Fig. 259, represents the common form. These are of pine
wood, 5.8 inches long and 1.1 inches broad, and deeply excavated on
the inside, with a narrow horizontal slit with thin edges on each side
of the middle. In the middle are two notches to fit the nose, the one
in the lower edge deep and rounded, the upper very shallow. The two
holes in each end are for strings of sinew braid to pass round the
head. They are neatly made and the outside is scraped smooth and shows
traces of a coat of red ocher.
[Illustration: FIG. 259.--Wooden snow goggles. 1/2]
The history of this particular pair of goggles is peculiarly
interesting. Though differing in no important respect from those used
at the present day, they were found on the site of the ancient village
of Isû´tkwa, where our station stood, buried at a depth of 27 feet in
undisturbed frozen ground, and were uncovered in digging the shaft
sunk by Lieut. Ray for obtaining earth temperatures.[N363] The layer
in which they were found was evidently an old sea beach, consisting of
sand and gravel mixed with broken shells, among which Mya truncata was
recognized. The amount of the superincumbent gravel and similar
material above this object does not necessarily indicate any very
great length of time since they were first buried, as will be readily
understood from what I have said above (p. 28) about the rapidity with
which high hummocks of gravel are pushed up by the ice. The unbroken
layer of turf, however, nearly a foot thick, with which the ground was
covered at this point, shows that a considerable period must have
elapsed since the gravel had reached nearly to its present level.
[Footnote N363: Report U.S. International Polar Expedition to
Point Barrow, p. 37.]
The pattern of these goggles is to my mind a very decided proof that
at that early date this region was inhabited by Eskimo not essentially
different from its present inhabitants. Goggles worn at the present
day are almost always of the shape of these, though I remember seeing
one pair made in two pieces joined by short strings of beads across
the nose. They are, I think, universally painted with red ocher on the
outside and blackened inside. They were not always made of wood, as
there are two specimens in the collection made of a piece of antler,
following the natural curve of the beam, divided longitudinally, with
the softer inside tissue hollowed out.
[Illustration: FIG. 260.--Bone snow goggles. 1/2]
Fig. 260 (No. 89701 [763], from Utkiavwĭñ) represents one of these
specimens. I do not recollect ever seeing goggles of this material in
actual use. No. 89703 [754], Fig. 261, is an unusual pattern, having
along the top a horizontal brim about one-half inch high, which serves
for an additional shade to the eyes. Above this are two oblique holes
opening into the cavity inside, which are probably for the purpose of
ventilation, to prevent the moisture from the skin from being
deposited as frost on the inside of the goggles or on the eyelashes.
I do not remember having seen such goggles worn. Dall figures a
similar pair from Norton Sound, and those brought by Mr. Turner from
Ungava have a similar brim and ventilating holes. The snow goggles
mentioned in Parry’s Second Voyage (p. 547) as occasionally seen at
Iglulik, but more common in Hudson’s Strait, appear to have resembled
these, but had a brim 3 or 4 inches deep.
[Illustration: FIG. 261.--Wooden snow goggles, unusual form. 1/2]
[Illustration: FIG. 262.--Marker for meat cache. 1/2]
_Meat-cache markers._--We purchased a couple of little ivory rods,
each with a little bunch of feathers tied to one end, which we were
told were used by the deer hunters to mark the place where they had
buried the flesh of a deer in the snow. This implement is called
tû´kusia.
Fig. 262, represents one of these (No. 89531 [978] from Nuwŭk). It is
a flat, slender rod of white walrus ivory, 11½ inches long, and
evidently broken off at the tip. The other end is cut into ornamental
notches, and ornamented with an incised pattern colored with red
ocher, consisting of conventional lines and the figure of a reindeer
on each face, a buck on one face and a doe on the other. Tied by a bit
of sinew to the uppermost notch are four legs and three wing tips
(three or four primaries, with the skin at the base) of the
buff-breasted sandpiper (Tryngites subruficollis). This was evidently
longer when new and perhaps was originally used for a seal indicator
(which see above). Fig. 263 (No. 89453 [1581] from Utkiavwĭñ) is a
similar rod, the tip of which has been brought to an edge so that it
can be used as a “feather-setter” in feathering arrows. The remains of
two wing tips of some small bird are tied to one of the notches at the
upper end.
[Illustration: FIG. 263.--Marker for meat cache. 1/4]