[8] Saabye: Greenland; being extracts from a Journal kept in that country in the years 1770 to 1778. London: 1818.
[9] Meddelelser om Grönland. Pt. 10, p. 58. Copenhagen: 1889.
[10] Norwegian, sennegræs. Trans.
[11] The Indians of the North-West and the Tchuktchi—and even, if I am not mistaken, the Koriaks and the Kamtchatkans—use the same harpoon, with a line and large bladder, in hunting sea animals, throwing the harpoon from the bow of their large open canoes or skin-boats. It seems probable, however, that they have learned the use of these instruments from the Eskimos.
[12] In North Greenland there is yet a third and larger form of the harpoon, which is used in walrus-hunting, and is hurled without a throwing-stick; it has instead two bone knobs, one for the thumb and one for the fore-finger.
[13] As to the different forms of the throwing-stick among the Eskimos, see Mason’s paper upon them in the Annual Report, &c. of the Smithsonian Institution for 1884, Part II. p. 279.
[14] In some places—for example, in the most southern part of Greenland and on the East Coast—there is only a hollow for the thumb, while the other side is smooth or edged with a piece of bone in which are notches to prevent the hand from slipping.
[15] On this point, see even such early authors as Cook and King, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, &c., 3rd ed., ii. p. 513, London, 1785.
[16] It is remarkable that the inhabitants of St. Lawrence Island do not seem to use the kaiak at all. They have large open skin-boats (baidars) of the same build as those of the Tchucktchi. (Compare Nordenskiöld, The Voyage of the Vega, ii. p. 254, London, 1881.)
[17] While the paddle is being pushed out sideways, until it comes at right angles to the kaiak, it is held slightly aslant, so that the blade, in moving, forces the water under it, and acquires an upward leverage.