In addition to the use of these scoops for skimming the fishing holes, and reeling up the line, as already described, they also serve as scrapers to remove snow and hoar frost from the clothing. In the winter most of the men and boys, especially the latter, carry these skimmers whenever they go out doors, partly for the sake of having something in their hands, as we carry sticks, and partly for use. The boys are very fond of using them to pick up and sling snowballs, bits of ice, or frozen dirt, which they do with considerable force and accuracy.
[IMPLEMENTS FOR PROCURING AND PREPARING FOOD.]
[Blubberhooks] (nĭ´ksĭgû).—
For catching hold of pieces of blubber or flesh when “cutting in” a whale or walrus, or dragging them round on shore or on the ice, or in the blubber rooms, they use hooks made by fastening a backward-pointing prong of ivory on the end of a wooden handle, which is bent into a crook at the other end. Those specially intended for use in the boats have handles 7 or 8 feet long, while those for shore use are only 2 or 3 feet long. These implements, which are common all along the Alaskan coast, may sometimes be used as boathooks, as appears to be the case farther south, though I never saw them so employed. We brought home two short hooks and one long one, No. 56766 [126], Fig. 311. This has a prong of walrus ivory fastened to a spruce pole, 7 feet 7¾ inches long, to the other end of which is fastened a short crook of antler. The pole is elliptical in section. The crook is a nearly straight “branch” of an antler with a transverse arm at the base made by cutting out a piece of the “beam” to fit against the pole, and is held on by three neat lashings of whalebone of the usual pattern. The upper two of these are transverse lashings passing through corresponding holes in the pole and crook. The lowest, which is at the tip of the arm, is at right angles to these, passing through wood and antler. The lashing of whalebone close to the tip of the crook, passing through a hole and round the under side of the latter, is to keep the hand from slipping off. The prong is held on by two lashings of small seal thong, each passing through a large transverse hole in the prong and a corresponding one in the pole. The upper pair of holes do not exactly match. There are also two unused holes, one in the pole below the upper hole and one above the upper hole in the prong. These holes and the new appearance of the lashings indicate that the prong is part of another hook recently fitted to this pole. The two lashings are made by a single piece of thong. The whole is old and weathered and rather greasy about the prong and the tip of the pole.
Fig. 311.—Long blubber hook.
