Dart head made from whalebone. It has two barbs along one edge, and an iron blade set into a slot at one end and held in place with an iron rivet. The other end tapers to a rounded point where it would have been inserted into a socket at the end of a shaft. Near that end a hole has been drilled for attaching a line. The Smithsonian Institution's catalogue card identifies this item as a fish spear, but more likely it is a head for a dart used for hunting seam mammals.

FROM CARD: "ILLUS. IN PROCEEDINGS, USNM, VOL. 60; PL. 24, NO. 9; P. 48." FROM CARD: "7420. ADJUSTABLE SPEAR-HEADS.-CONSIST OF TWO PARTS: A CARVED, BARBED BONE, WHICH IS POINTED AND FITS INTO HEAD OF WOODEN SHAFT, AND A METAL HEAD, BARBED, WHICH IS LASHED IN A SLOT IN OUTER END OF THE BONE HEAD. FROM ANDERSON RIVER. LENGTHS, 6 1/2 INS. TO 1 FT. 2 INS. BRITISH AMERICA, 1867. COLLECTED BY ROBERT [SIC, SHOULD BE RODERICK] MACFARLANE. NOS. 7,420, 2,431, AND FOUR SPECIMENS, NO. 2,675."Note that 7420 is mentioned as being used in an exhibit in Berlin in 1880 on p. 60 of USNM Bulletin No. 18.