Harpoon-Points
The purpose of these implements is too plain to make any explanation necessary. Four distinct types of harpoon-points, none of which are as yet known to be of other than very infrequent occurrence, have been obtained in Wisconsin. What special application any of these several patterns may have had is not yet clear. The following is a brief description of them:—
1. The first are short, flattish points seldom exceeding two and a half inches in length. (Fig. 605, to the left.) One edge of these implements is either straight or presents a continuous curve from extremity to extremity. The other edge is curved or straight from the point downward to about opposite the middle of the implement, where it terminates in a barb. From thence it narrows to the other extremity, thus forming a stem. Occasionally this is notched on either side near its base. Small numbers of these points have been recovered from the village-sites along the Lake Michigan shore.
2. A second and less frequent form is cylindrical in section and tapers to a sharp point at each extremity. (Fig. 604, second from right.) Removed from one extremity by several inches, more or less, is a stout and very pronounced barb. All are of large size. A particularly large specimen measures ten and three fourths inches in length and about one half inch in diameter at the middle. Others are to be seen in the State Historical Museum and H. P. Hamilton collections. Mr. Clarence B. Moore has figured and described a large example obtained by him in Florida.
Fig. 611. (S. 2–3.) Copper crescents. Collection of Logan Museum, Beloit, Wisconsin.
Iron harpoons of similar form, but frequently possessing from two to three barbs, sometimes alternating on opposite sides of the implement are still in use by Wisconsin Indians for spearing large fish.
Fig. 612. (S. 1–1.) Ear ornaments from the Hopewell Group, Ohio.
3. Another form of harpoon is represented by a specimen in the Milwaukee Public Museum. This implement is somewhat triangular in section, about eight and a half inches in length and about three fourths of an inch in breadth at the middle. The ends taper to a blunted point. The thinner edge of the implement is furnished with four stout, broad barbs, separated from each other by a distance of about one and a half inches. Bone harpoon-points of this pattern occur in New York and Ontario. (Like Fig. 606.)