Harpoon

weapon · Canada · Arctic

The harpoon of the Inuit is the throwing weapon perfected for the open sea, a wooden shaft fitted with a detachable head of bone or ivory that buries itself in the seal's hide and toggles, turning beneath the skin so the animal cannot tear free as the line plays out. The hunter cast from the kayak, holding the line so that the wounded seal could be hauled in as it tired, and the same principle was scaled up with heavier heads and floats for walrus and whales. The design is one of the great achievements of Arctic engineering, refined over millennia of open-water hunting, and it was among the to

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