Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - I. The Eskimo tribes, their common origin, their dispersion and their diversities in general - Inventions for procuring the necessary means of subsistence
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going from south to north almost side by side with the bladder.
Experience must soon have shown the usefulness of forming and
fastening to the shaft the point of the missile in such a manner,
that after having hit the game it would be detached from the end of
it and only remain hanging at it by a strap. The use of the large
harpoon especially required THAT THE POINT SHOULD GET WHOLLY
RID OF THE SHAFT which in this way was allowed to remain
floating while the seal ran off with the line and the bladder. For
this purpose the FOREMOST PART OF THE SHAFT HAS A JOINT
THAT ENABLES IT TO BE BENT by the struggles of the animal,
whereupon the point and the line directely will fall off. The
same flexibility has also been given to the lance by which the
seal receives its mortal wounds after being hit with the harpoon.
Missiles with points able to get loose from the end of the shaft
are everywhere met with among kayak implements, but the
appropriate mode of fashioning the point for this aim is only
found gradually developed as we proceed northward.
Finally we have to consider that side by side with the
amelioration of the implements the kayak itself is rendered more suitable
for overcoming the emergencies to which its occupant is exposed,
and that in this way the marvellous art of HUNTING SEALS FROM
A KAYAK DOES NOT ATTAIN ITS HIGHEST PERFECTION EXCEPT IN
GREENLAND. This superiority is manifested in TWO ACCOMPLISHMENTS
which in Greenland only are considered indispensable
to a man who would lay claim to the rank of a sealhunter. The
first of them is the ART OF RISING TO THE SURFACE AGAIN by
means of the paddle in case of being overturned. This art is
but scarcely — if at all — known in Alaska and Labrodor,
although it may be easily imagined how necessary this capacity
for helping himself must be to a hunter who desires to be
independent of the assistance of companions. The other
advantage is the art just mentioned of CAPTURING BY MEANS OF THE
LARGE HARPOON AND BLADDER which can not be properly learned
without being educated as a kayaker from early boyhood. It
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