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son (archaeology of the Aleuts). Then the typological works of Mason and Hough.
In order to keep the task within reasonable limits the Eskimo territory has only exceptionally been departed from.
We will now turn to a closer consideration of the various elements.
The harpoon is one of the most important and most characteristic weapons of the Eskimo, even if it is to be found outside the Eskimo territory too. The harpoon is one of the objects on which Eskimo implement technique and inventiveness come to their highest expression. It is a rather complicated weapon which can be varied in many ways, and this is in particular true of that part of it that is most important, the harpoon head itself, which is to force its way into and hold the game. Harpoon heads appear in a multitude of forms and variations and, as they furthermore are among the most frequently occurring objects in older Eskimo finds, they are better than any other element of Eskimo culture for showing cultural connection and chronology in the Eskimo culture.
No serious attempt has previously been made to draw up the chronological position of the manifold forms of harpoon heads. The works which have so far appeared on harpoon heads, i. e. Mason's[1] and Swenander's[2] are based upon purely typological views; Porsild[3] seems to bring more technological views into the foreground; Wissler[4] states that judging from the finds on Southampton Island the harpoon heads with open shaft socket seem to be older than those with closed sockets, but this is not clearly visible in Greenland; Birket-Smith[5] is of the opinion that in West Greenland the harpoon heads without barbs were in olden times more common than now and that the type which in the foregoing has been called "Thule type 2" "belongs to the most primitive in Greenland".
Now we have a collection of about two hundred harpoon heads, to a great extent taken up under conditions where the stratigraphic circumstances were noted. These harpoon heads have already been referred to and described fully under the various finds. We shall now attempt to survey the finds in bulk and see what can be gleaned from them.
Mason divides harpoon heads into "barbed harpoons” and “toggle harpoons"; the first retains its hold by means of barbs, the second by placing itself across in the wound. This division has the drawback that the boundary is difficult to draw, as there are all kinds of inter-
