Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/496

Salmon spear. A pointed piece of leg bone is presumably the barb of a salmon spear. It is 6.4 cm long, slender, roughly shaped, one end pointed, the other end runs out into a blunt neck; the part within this is slightly sunk. Pl. 82.13 is presumably the side prong of a toy salmon spear, of whalebone, cut obliquely at the shaft end, with a hole for the barb in the fore end. A point of caribou leg bone, 11.5 cm long with a very flattened shaft end, is presumably a middle prong for a salmon spear or the like.

Leister prongs. Three roughly shaped bone points have barbs on both sides and have apparently been used as prongs on a leister for catching sea scorpions etc.; it is of antler, with five two-rowed barbs, defective; the other two of leg bone with 3 and 4 barbs respectively, thin, their lengths being 9.6 and 12.4 cm.

Salmon decoys. Pl. 82.15 (P 12. 198) is carved in the form of a fish out of the jaw bone of a seal; the teeth sockets can still be seen on the underside. Besides the hole in the back there are two borings, one through the head (eye?) another through the middle of the body; the tail is only just indicated. Another specimen, of leg bone (found in a refuse heap) is more slender, with distinct eye and tail, no holes, but with notches in back and belly for the cord.

Fish hook. Pl. 83.6 (P 12. 167) must be looked upon as a fish hook; it is rather flat and curved; at the top is a hole for the line and a smaller hole for the appendage which is to attract the salmon; at the bottom a larger hole for the hook itself, which has formed an angle of about 80° with the shank, and a smaller hole for the tying on of the hook.

Ice scoop. Pl. 83.3 (P 12. 104) is an implement that is not known from the other Thule finds. It is a large, flat spoon with a short shank, on which a handle has been lashed. The blade is rather thin, is broken and has been repaired by lashings, but again broken. The specimen must be presumed to have been used as an ice scoop, for taking up pieces of ice and snow from the holes when catching salmon (and cod) from the ice.

Sledge shoes. Ten specimens, of which two are of whalebone, the remainder of antler; their lengths are up to 24 cm, their widths up to 4½ and thicknesses up to 0.9 cm; several of the antler specimens are fairly narrow, 2–3 cm. Nine of them have nail holes irregularly distributed, and in one of these is a bone nail; one specimen has two pairs of holes and connecting groove for sunk bindings. One is rounded off at one end whereas the other, which is broken, seems