Notice of a peculiar weapon or harpoon of bronze found on the bank of the River Tweed, near Norham / by John Alexander Smith.
- Date:
- [1870?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Notice of a peculiar weapon or harpoon of bronze found on the bank of the River Tweed, near Norham / by John Alexander Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![These curious weapons have generaUy tee or more barbs projecting from each side, and many of them have both of their extremities pointed, as if for fixing into a corresponding cavity in the extremity of a separate shaft; they also show a slight projection of the bone on each side above their tapering posterior extremity, apparently corresponding to the s op or bar on the bronze blade. These spear heads, however, are very slender in character when compared with this strong blade of bronze. I have examined some weapons of the ruder or less civdised races oi men of more modern times, to see if I could find anythmg corresponding in character or design to this weapon of bronze. The principal lance or harpoon of the Esquimaux consists of a Ion shaft of wood, mth a large separate head of bone, whach is pointed i front, and terminates in barbs behind. Some of Uiese ^^-poo- have the head prolonged backwards to a tapering or pointed termination, for in seln into a socket hollowed at the extremity of the wooden handle am they have also projections corresponding to the bars or stops of th we now described ; others have a socket cut between t^^^ which the tapering point of the shaft is inserted, ^-%''\l\^2t transversely with a hole, to which a strong line of ^^^^^^^ attached • to the other extremity of this line is fixed a float or air bag, r^ed of tl inflated skin of a seah When the ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ his skin-covered canoe or kayack to hunt the seal or the whak l^s pn. cipal weapon is this large lance, which is strapped at -de t^^^ ^ « arranged on a stand in front of him, and the skin float Pl^^^^^ on Ui ano; behind. When he strikes his game, the ^^^J - the handle of the spear, which is ^^f-^'^''^''^,]^^^ float into the water, where it acts both as a buoy P^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ game has gone, and as a drag to ^^^;l^^^t::^Zy to strength of the wounded animal. He is thus ^^^^ ,vhich has Groenlander, with its movable head, its line, and its float, made > Esquimaux themselves. F<»nnimnux arc Harpoons of a similar construction to those of the Esquimni](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21944398_0004.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
