Large Harpoon For Beluga Whale And Seal
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1 Nov 1878
name: label: Donor Name
content: Edward W. Nelson
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "ILLUS. IN BAE 18TH AR, PT. 1; PL. LV-A6; P. 139 ALSO IN USNM REPT, 1900; FIG. 81; P. 285. 1/83 SITES INUA LOAN." Described p. 108 in Brown, James Temple. 1883. The whale fishery and its appliances. Washington: Govt. print. off.: "Eskimo Seal-harpoon. Pole, wood, one inch in diameter; butt recessed to receive a recurved bone spear, which is lashed with seal-skin; ivory peg for grip, lashed to pole with seal-skin; tip mounted with a bulb-like ivory head recessed for shank; shank, ivory, fastened to line with a small seal-skin laniard or becket. Lily-iron, ivory, tipped with iron, rigid eye for line; seal-skin line attached to head. Total length, 9 feet 2 inches. Norton Sound, Alaska. E. W. Nelson. Combined harpoon and lance, manufactured and used by natives in the capture of seal." Illus. Fig. 53, pp. 76 - 77 in Fitzhugh, William W., Susan A. Kaplan, and Henry B. Collins. 1982. Inua: spirit world of the Bering Sea Eskimo. Washington, D.C.: Published for the National Museum of Natural History by the Smithsonian Institution Press. Identified there as "Toggling Harpoon, a-ja-kut. A light form of toggling harpoon is used for catching large seals and beluga from kayaks in summer and at ice holes or at the floe edge in winter and spring. This harpoon has a grooved, robust shaft with an antler ice pick, an ivory finger rest, and a bulbous antler socketpiece. The spurred antler toggling harpoon head is attached to the shaft by means of a rodlike foreshaft whose larger end is inserted in a shallow depression in the socketpiece. The smaller end fits into the socket in the base of the harpoon head."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 31 Aug 2018
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Kigiktauik, Norton Sound, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 78A00080
label: USNM Number
content: E33888-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Harpoon