GREENLAND TYPE.

The Greenland throwing-stick is a long, flat trapezoid, slightly ridged along the back (Fig. 2).  It has no distinct handle at the wide end, although it will be readily seen that the expanding of this part secures a firm grip.  A chamfered groove on one side for the thumb, and a smaller groove on the other side for the index finger, insure the implement against slipping from the hunter’s grasp.  Marks 5, 6, 7 of the series on page 280 are wanting in the Greenland type.  The shaft-groove, in which lies the shaft of the great harpoon, is wide, deep, and rounded at the bottom.  There is no hook, as in all the other types, to fit the end of the harpoon shaft, but in its stead are two holes, one in the front end of the shaft-groove, between the thumb-groove and the finger-groove, with an ivory eyelet or grommet for a lining, the other at the distal end of the shaft-groove, in the ivory piece which is ingeniously inserted there to form that extremity.  This last-mentioned hole is not cylindrical like the one in front, but is so constructed as to allow the shaft-peg to slide off easily.  These holes exactly fit two ivory pegs projecting from the harpoon shaft.  When the hunter has taken his throwing-stick in his hand he lays his harpoon shaft upon it so that the pegs will fall in the two little holes of the stick.  By a sudden jerk of his hand the harpoon is thrown forward and released, the pegs drawing out of the holes in the stick.  At the front end of the throwing-stick a narrow piece of ivory is pegged to prevent splitting.  As before intimated, this type of throwing-stick is radically different from all others in its adjustment to the pegs on the heavy harpoon.  In all other examples in the world the hook or spur is on the stick and not on the weapon.

UNGAVA TYPE.

One specimen from Fort Chimo in this region, southeast of Hudson Bay, kindly lent by Mr. Lucien Turner, is very interesting, having little relation with that from Greenland (which is so near geographically), and connecting itself with all the other types as far as Kadiak, in Alaska (Fig. 3).  The outline of the implement is quite elaborate and symmetrical, resembling at the hook end a fiddle-head, and widening continuously by lateral and facial curves to the front, where it is thin and flat.  A slight rounded notch for the thumb, and a longer chamfer for three fingers, form the handle.  Marks 5 and 6 are wanting.  The cavity for the index finger extends quite through the implement, as it does in all cases where it is on the side of the harpoon-shaft groove, and not directly under it.  The shaft groove is shallow, and the hook at the lower extremity is formed by a piece of ivory inserted in a parallel groove in the fiddle-head and fastened with pegs.  It is as though a saw-cut one-eighth inch wide had been made longitudinally through the fiddle-head and one-half inch beyond, and the