light seal harpoon. The barbed point will fasten itself into the animal,
detach itself from the ivory foreshaft, and unwind the rawhide or sinew
line, which is securely tied to both ends of the light wooden shaft by a
martingale device. The heavy ivory foreshaft will cause the shaft to
assume an upright position in the water, and the whole will act as a
drag to impede the progress of the game. The same idea of impeding
progress and of retrieving is carried out by a multitude of devices not
necessary to mention here.

The Eskimo spend much time in their skin kyaks, from which it would be
difficult to launch an arrow from a bow, or a harpoon from the unsteady,
cold, and greasy hand. This device of the throwing-stick, therefore, is
the substitute for the bow or the sling, to be used in the kyak, by a
people who cannot procure the proper materials for a heavier
lance-shaft, or at least whose environment is prejudicial to the use of
such a weapon. Just as soon as we pass Mount St. Elias going southward,
the throwing-stick, plus the spear or dart of the Eskimo and the Aleut,
gives place to the harpoon with a long, heavy, cedar shaft, weighing 15
or 20 pounds, whose momentum from both hands of the Indian, without the
throw-stick, exceeds that of the Eskimo and Aleut darts and harpoons,
with the additional velocity imparted by the throwing-stick. It must not
be forgotten, also, that the kyak is a very frail, unsteady thing, and
therefore not much of the momentum of the body can be utilized, as it is
by the Northwest Indians in making a lunge with a heavy shaft. The
throwing-stick is also said by some arctic voyagers to be useful in
giving directness of aim. Perhaps no other savage device comes so near
in this respect to a gun barrel or the groove of a bow-gun. Its greatest
advantages, however, are the firm grip which it gives in handling a
harpoon or dart, and the longer time which it permits the hunter to
apply the force of his arm to the propulsion of his weapon. Having