Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/63

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Fig. 21.Narwhal harpoon.
Narwhal and White-Whale Hunting.

White-whales frequent several places, as for instance Repulse Bay (on August 3rd, 1922, six were caught in breaks in the ice at Beach Point), Duke of York Bay, Lyon Inlet; they are caught from boats (with gun and harpoon) and also from the ice edge. Sometimes a school is caught in an open hole in the ice (savssat) and then become an easy prey.

Narwhals are of great importance at Ponds Inlet and Admiralty Inlet; there the principal hunting ground is Button Point. When the ice is breaking up they appear at the ice edge, in cracks and holes, by the hundred, and, when the ice has gone out, great schools of them pass through Ponds Inlet all the summer. They are hunted from boats and also from kayaks; as a rule they are first shot and then harpooned; a large number are lost, however, through this not very rational method.

The implement used is the narwhal harpoon. Fig. 21 shows one of these with its line and bladder, from Ponds Inlet. The shaft (1) is of wood, oval in section, 1.44 m long; a socket-piece of ivory, 4 cm long, with a socket in the fore end, is fastened to it by two rivets; this socket fits. a tenon on the rear end of the foreshaft. This is of ivory, 36 cm long, slightly curved; through its lower end are two holes at right angles to

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