Throwing-sticks in the National Museum / Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-'84, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1890, pages 279-289

An illustrated ethnographic study catalogs and analyzes throwing-sticks in a museum collection, concentrating on Arctic and sub‑Arctic seafaring peoples. It explains how the implement functions as an aid to launching harpoons or darts from fragile skin boats, improving grip, aim, and leverage, and links form to use. The author defines a set of morphological markers—overall shape, handle, thumb- and finger-grooves, finger-pegs, fingertip cavities, index-finger aperture, shaft-groove, and hook or spur—and shows how those features vary regionally. Detailed typologies (including Greenland and Ungava varieties and North American coastal forms) are illustrated and compared with attention to accompanying weapons, prey, and hand protection.