At the after end of the cockpit is an extra stout beam or thwart to support the back, 1¾ inches wide and three-quarters inch thick, with rounded edges, the ends of which are apparently lashed with thong. The first beam forward of the cockpit is rounded, and appears to be a natural crook forming a U-shaped arch, and is followed by seven V-shaped knees, thickest in the middle and enlarged a little at the ends, successively decreasing in height to the seventh, which is almost straight. This makes the rise in the deck forward of the cockpit.
Every alternate deck beam is braced to the gunwale at each end by an oblique lashing of whalebone, running from a transverse hole in the beam about 1 inch from the gunwale to a corresponding hole in the gunwale, three-quarters inch from the lower edge. The lashing makes three or four turns through these holes and around the lower edge of the gunwale, and the end is wrapped spirally round these turns for their whole length. Above these beams a narrow batten runs fore and aft amidships from cockpit to stem and stern, mortised into the two beams at the cockpit, and lashed to the others with whalebone. The coaming of the cockpit is made of a single flat piece of wood, 1¾ inches broad and one-quarter inch thick, bent into a hoop with the ends lapping about 6 inches and “sewed” together with stitches of whalebone. Round the upper edge of this, on the outside, is fitted a “half-round” hoop, which appears to be made of willow, three-quarters by one-third inch, with its ends lapped about 4 inches, this lap coming over the joint of the larger hoop. It is fastened on by short stitches of whalebone about 5 or 6 inches apart, leaving room enough between the two hoops to allow a lacing of fine whalebone to pass through. The coaming is put on over the edge of the skin cover, which is drawn up tight inside of the coaming and over its upper edge and fastened by a lacing of whalebone, which runs spirally round the outer hoop and through holes about one-half inch apart in the edge of the cover.
The coaming fits over the crown of the arch of the forward deck beam and rests on the middle of the thwart aft, and is secured by lashings of whalebone, which pass through holes in the coaming and over its upper edge. The forward lashing makes three turns, which pass round the beam with the end wrapped spirally round the parts between beam and coaming; the after lashing, four similar turns, which pass through a hole in the thwart and around its forward edge. On each side is a stout vertical brace of wood 3¼ inches long, 1 inch wide, and one-half inch thick, with rounded edges and corners. The ends are cut out parallel to the breadth, so that one end fits on to the upper edge of the gunwale, while the other receives the lower edge of the coaming, protruding on the outside through a hole in the cover.
The cover is of six sealskins, put together heads to tails, so that there is only one longitudinal seam, which runs irregularly along the deck. The transverse seams, which run obliquely across the bottom are double and sewed with a blind stitch, like the seams already described on the waterproof boots, from the inside. These seams are nearly 2 inches wide. The longitudinal seam is sewed in the same way from the outside, but not so broadly lapped, with the edge turned over into a roll. There are two pieces of stout thong stretched across the deck, one forward of the cockpit and the other aft, which serve to fasten articles to the deck. The thong passes out through a hole in the gunwale, one-half inch from the upper edge and 6 inches from the cockpit, on the starboard side forward and on the port side aft, and is secured by a knot in the end inboard. The other end passes in through a corresponding hole in the other gunwale and is loosely knotted to the deck beams, so that the line can be slackened off or tautened up at pleasure. Three feet from the bow is a becket for holding spears, etc., fastened into two little holes bored diagonally outward through the edge of the gunwales. It is of two parts of seal thong, one part twisted round the other, but is broken in the middle, so that only one-half of it is left. The weight of this kaiak in its present dry condition is 32 pounds.
This is about the ordinary pattern of kaiak used at Point Barrow, and is a medium-sized one. These boats are made to fit the size of the owner, a youth or small man using a much smaller and lighter kaiak than a heavy adult. They are never made to carry more than one person, and I have never heard of their being used by the women. In carrying the kaiak across the land from lake to lake, it is held horizontally against the side with the bow pointing forward, by thrusting the forearm into the cockpit. We never saw them carried on the head, in the manner practised at Fury and Hecla Straits.429
In entering the canoe the man takes great care to wipe his feet clean of sand and gravel, which would work down under the timbers and chafe the skin. The canoe is launched in shoal water, preferably alongside of a little bank, and the man steadies it by sticking down his paddle on the outer side and holding it with his left hand, while he balances himself on his right foot, and with his free hand carefully wipes his left foot. He then steps with his left foot into the kaiak, and still balancing himself with the help of the paddle, lifts and wipes his right foot before he steps in with that. He then pushes his feet and legs forward under the raised deck, settles himself in a proper position for trimming the boat, and shoves off. As elsewhere, the kaiak is always propelled with a paddle.
No. 89246 [539], Fig. 340, is the paddle which belongs to the kaiak just described. It is 7 feet long. The shaft joining the blades is elliptical in section, with its greatest width at right angles to the plane of the blades so to present the greatest resistance to the strain of paddling. The shape of the blade, with rounded tip and thin rounded edges is admirably adapted to give the blade a clean entry into the water. The whole is very neatly and smoothly made, and the blades are painted with red ocher. This is a much more effective paddle than those used by the Greenlanders and other eastern Eskimo, the blades of which, probably from the scarcity of wood430 are very narrow, not exceeding 4 inches in width. In Greenland and Labrador, also, the blades are square at the ends like those of ordinary oars, and are usually edged with bone to prevent them from splitting. The absence of this bone edging on the paddles from Point Barrow perhaps indicates that they are meant for summer use only and not for working among the ice. In accordance with the general custom in northwestern America, the double-bladed paddle (páutĭñ) is used only when great speed is desired, as in chasing game. It is handled in the usual way, being grasped with both hands near the middle, and dipped alternately on opposite sides. For ordinary traveling they use a single-bladed paddle (áñun), of the same shape as those used in the umiak but usually somewhat smaller, of which we neglected to procure a specimen. With this they make a few strokes on one side, till the boat begins to sheer, then shift it over and make a few strokes, on the other side. They do this with very great skill, getting considerable speed, and making a remarkably straight wake. The use of this single paddle appears to be universal along the coast of Alaska, from Point Barrow southward, and it is also used at the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers, as shown by the models collected by MacFarlane in that region. It is, however, unknown among the eastern Eskimo about whom we have any definite information on the subject, namely, the Greenlanders, the people of Baffin Land, Hudson Strait, and Labrador.431
Curiously enough the Greenlanders had a superstition of a sort of malevolent spirits called kajariak, who were “kayakmen of an extraordinary size, who always seem to be met with at a distance from land beyond the usual hunting grounds. They were skilled in the arts of sorcery, particularly in the way of raising storms and bringing bad weather. Like the umiarissat [other fabulous beings], they use one-bladed paddles, like those of the Indians.”432 This tradition either refers back to a time when the ancestors of the Greenlanders used the single paddle or to occasional and perhaps hostile meetings between eastern and western Eskimo.
Though the kaiak is essentially the same wherever used, it differs considerably in size and external appearance in different localties. The kaiak of the Greenlanders is perhaps the best-known model, as it has been figured and described by many authors. It is quite as light and sharp as the Point Barrow model, but has a flat floor, the bilge being angular instead of rounded, and it has considerably more sheer to the deck, the stem and stern being prolonged into long curved points, which project above the water, and are often shod with bone or ivory. The coaming of the cockpit also is level, or only slightly raised forward. The kaiaks used in Baffin Land, Hudson Straits, and Labrador are of a very similar model, but larger and heavier, having the projecting points at the bow and stern rather shorter and less sharp, and the coaming of the cockpit somewhat more raised forward. Both of these forms are represented by specimens and numerous models in the museum collections. I have seen one flat-floored kaiak at Point Barrow. It belonged to a youth and was very narrow and light.
The kaiak in use at Fury and Hecla Straits, as described by Capt. Lyon433 and Capt. Parry434 is of a somewhat different model, approaching that used at the Anderson River. It is a large kaiak 25 feet long, with the bow and stern sharp and considerably more bent up than in the Greenland kaiaks, but round-bottomed, like the western kaiaks. The deck is flat, with the cockpit coaming somewhat raised forward.435
In the kaiaks used at the Anderson and Mackenzie rivers, as shown by the models in the National Museum, the bending up of the stem and stern posts is carried to an extreme, so that they make an angle of about 130° with the level of the deck. The bottom is round and the cockpit nearly level, but sufficient room for the knees and feet is obtained by arching not only the deck beams just forward of the cockpit, but all of them from stem to stern, so that the deck slopes away to each side like the roof of a house. At Point Barrow, as already described, the deck beams are arched only just forward of the cockpit, and the stem and stern are not prolonged. This appears to be the prevailing form of canoe at least as far south as Kotzebue Sound and is sometimes used by the Malemiut of Norton Sound. At Port Clarence the heavy, large kaiak, so common from Norton Sound southward, appears to be in use from Nordenskiöld’s description, as he speaks of the kaiaks holding two persons, sitting back to back in the cockpit.436 The kaiaks of the southwestern Eskimo are, as far as I have been able to learn, large and heavy, with level coamings, with the deck quite steeply arched fore and aft, and with bow and stern usually of some peculiar shape, as shown by models in the Museum. See also Dall’s figure (Alaska, p. 15.)437
While the kaiak, however, differs so much in external appearance in different localities, it is probable that in structure it is everywhere essentially the same. Only two writers have given a detailed description of the frame of a kaiak, and these are from widely distant localities, Iglulik and western Greenland, both still more widely distant from Point Barrow, and yet both give essentially the same component parts as are to be found at Point Barrow, namely, two comparatively stout gunwales running from stem to stern, braced with transverse deckbeams,438 seven streaks running fore and aft along the bottom, knees, or ribs in the form of hoops, and a hoop for the coaming, bound together with whalebone or sinew.439
Fig. 341.—Model kaiak and paddle.
The double-bladed paddle is almost exclusively an Eskimo contrivance. The only other hyperborean race, besides the Aleuts, who use it, are the Yukagirs, who employ it in their narrow dugout canoes on the River Kolyma in Siberia.440 Double-bladed paddles have also been observed in the Malay Archipelago.
Fig. 341, (No. 56561 [224] from Utkiavwiñ) is a very neatly made model of a kaiak, 13.3 inches long. It is quite accurate in all its details, but has only five streaks on the bottom, and its width and depth are about twice what they should be in proportion to the length. The frame is lashed together with fine sinew and covered with seal entrail. The paddle is also out of proportion. Many similar neatly finished models were made for sale. The natives are so skillful in making them that it is possible that they are in the habit of making them for the children to play with. I do not, however, recollect ever seeing a child with one.
The large skin-covered open boat, essentially the same in model as that employed by almost all Eskimo, as well as the Aleuts and some Siberian races, is the chief means of conveyance by water, for traveling, hunting, and fishing. Though the women do a great share of the work of navigating the boat when a single family or a small party is making a journey, it is by no means considered as a woman’s boat, as appears to be the case among the Greenlanders and eastern Eskimo generally.441 On the contrary, women are not admitted into the regularly organized whaling crews, unless the umialik can not procure men enough, and in the “scratch” crews assembled for walrus hunting or sealing there are usually at least as many men as women, and the men work as hard as the women. I do not, however, recollect that I ever saw a man pull an oar in the umiak. They appear always to use paddles alone. This is interesting in connection with the Greenland custom mentioned by Egede in the continuation of the passage just quoted: “And when they first set out for the whale fishing, the men sit in a very negligent posture, with their faces turned towards the prow, pulling with their little ordinary paddle; but the women sit in the ordinary way, with their faces towards the stern, rowing with long oars.”
We were unable to bring home any specimen of these boats on account of their size, but Fig. 342, from a photograph by Lieut. Ray, will give a good idea of the framework. These boats vary considerably in size, but are usually very nearly the dimensions of an ordinary whaleboat—that is, about 30 feet in length, with a beam of 5 or 6 feet and a depth of about 2½ feet. The boat resembles very much in model the American fisherman’s dory, having a narrow flat bottom, sharp at both ends, with flaring sides, and considerable rake at stem and stern. Both floor and rail have a strong sheer, fore and aft, and the gunwales extend beyond the stem so as to meet at the bow. Both stem and stern are sharp nearly to the rail, where they flare out and are cut off square. These boats are exceedingly light and buoyant, and capable of considerable speed when fully manned. They are very “quick” in their motion and quite crank till they get down to their bearings, but beyond that appear to be very stiff.
I never heard of one being capsized, though the natives move about aboard of them with perfect freedom. The frame is neatly made of pieces of driftwood, which it usually takes a considerable time to accumulate.442
A stout square timber, of perhaps 3 inches scantling, runs along the middle of the bottom forming a keel or keelson. This of necessity is usually made of several pieces of wood scarfed together and fastened with treenails and whalebone lashings. At each end it is fastened in the same way to the stem and sternpost, which are both of the same shape, broad and flat above or inside, but beveled off to a keel outside, and curving up in a knee, at the same time tapering off to the point where the bow (or stern) begins to flare. Here it is mortised into the under side of a trapezoidal block of wood, widest and thickest on the inboard end, and concaved off on the under face, to a thin edge outboard. It is held on by a transverse lashing passing through holes in the end of the post and the thickest part of the block. Along each side of the bottom, at what would be the bilge of a round bottom boat, runs a stout streak, thinner and wider than the keelson and set up edgewise. These are spread apart amidships, but bent together fore and aft so as to be scarfed into the stem and sternpost (see diagram, Fig. 343a).
Fig. 342.—Frame of umiak.
On the model they are fastened here with treenails, and this is probably also the case on the large canoes. They are spread apart by cross pieces or floor timbers, flat rather broad boards laid across the keelson with their ends mortised into the bilge streaks. These are longest amidships and decrease regularly in length fore and aft. There were fifteen of them on Nikawáalu’s umiak. On the model they are pegged to the keelson and bilge streaks. The ribs are straight, slender, square timbers, eighteen on each side (on Nikawáalu’s umiak; the canoe photographed has fifteen). These are all of the same length, but fitted obliquely to the outer edge of the bilge-streaks in such a way (see diagram, Fig. 343b) that those amidships slant considerably outward while the others become gradually more and more erect fore and aft, thus producing the sheer in the lines. To these ribs, inside, a little below the middle of each, is fastened a streak on each side, of about the dimensions of the bilge streak, running from stem to stern, and the gunwales are fitted into the notched ends of the ribs, where they are secured by lashings of whalebone. These on Nikawáalu’s umiak were each a single round pole about 2 inches in diameter. Such long pieces of wood as this were probably obtained by trade from the Nunatañmeun. These extend about 2½ or 3 feet beyond the stem, to which they are fastened on each side by whalebone lashings, and meet at a sharp angle, being lashed together with whalebone. On the model, this lashing passes through holes in both gunwales and round underneath. The gunwales are fastened to the sternpost in the same way as to the stem, in both cases resting on the upper surface of the block so as to form a low rail, but project only 5 or 6 inches.
Fig. 343.—Construction of umiak: (a) method of fastening bilge streaks to stem; (b) method of framing rib to gunwale, etc.
Between the post and the last pair of long ribs at each end are two pairs of short ribs running only from the gunwale to the inside streak. The frame is still further strengthened by an outside streak between the bilge streak and the inside streak, and Nikawáalu’s canoe had an extra streak of “half-round” willow outside of the latter. The thwarts rest on the inside streak and are secured by whalebone lashings. The block or head of the stern-post serves as a high seat for the steersman. Crantz’s443 description and diagram show that the frame of the Greenland umiak consists of essentially the same timbers, lacking only the two outside streaks.
The cover is made of the skins of the larger marine animals. Walrus hide is often used and sometimes the skin of the polar bear, which makes a beautifully white cover, but the skin of the bearded seal is preferred, the people from Point Barrow sometimes making journeys to Wainwright Inlet in search of such skins, which are dressed with their oil in them in the manner already referred to. We were informed that six of these skins were required to cover one umiak. They are put together in the same way as the skins for the kaiak and sewed with the same seam. The edges of the cover are stretched over the gunwale, and laced to the inside streak with a stout thong, which passes through holes in the edge of the cover. At stem and stern the cover is laced with a separate thong to a stout transverse lashing of thong running from gunwale to gunwale close to the edge of the posthead.
The cover is removed in the winter and stowed away on the cache frame or some other safe place (Mûñialu, when preparing to start for the spring deer hunt in 1883, carefully buried his boat cover in a snowbank) out of reach of the dogs, and the frame is placed bottom upwards on a staging 4 or 5 feet from the ground.
When they are ready to refit the canoe for the spring whaling, a hole is cut in the sea ice close to the shore, and the cover immersed in the sea water for several days to soften it, the hole being covered with slabs of snow to keep it from freezing up. Crantz444 mentions a similar custom in Greenland. After removing the hair from the boat-skins “they lay them in salt water for some days to soften them again, and so cover the women’s boats and kajaks with them.” When not in use, the umiak is drawn up on the beach and usually laid bottom upward with the gear, spears, etc., underneath it, but sometimes propped up on one gunwale to make a shelter against the wind. This is a common practice in the camp at Pernyû, where there is usually at least one boat set up edgewise, sheltered by which the men sit to whittle and gossip.
In the whaling camp at Imêkpûñ in 1883, the boats which were not ready to go out to the open water were laid up bottom up with one end resting on a sled set up on its side and the other supported by a block of snow. They do not appear to be in the habit of using the canoe for a tent, as is said to be the custom among the more southern natives,445 as they always carry a tent with them on their journeys. The umiak is propelled by paddles, oars, and a sail, and in smooth weather when the shore is clear of ice by “tracking” along the beach with men and dogs, one person at least always remaining on board to steer with a paddle at the stern.
The sail, which they are only able to use with a free wind, is square, narrow, and rather high, and is nowadays always made of drilling. Dark blue drilling appeared to be the most popular sort at the time of our visit. The head of the sail is laced to a light yard, and hoisted to the masthead by a halyard through a hole in the latter. The mast is a stout square pole 10 or 12 feet long and is set up well forward of amidships, without a step, the square butt resting against a bottom board, and held up by two forestays and two backstays, running from the masthead to the inside streak. All the rigging, stays, halyards, towing line, etc., are made of stout thong. The Greenlanders set up the mast in the bow of the umiak—as a sailor would say, “in the very eyes of her,”446 but as far as I can learn the Western Eskimo all set it up as at Point Barrow.
The oars are very clumsily made with very narrow blades not over 3 inches broad. They are about 7 feet long and somewhat enlarged at the loom. Instead of resting in rowlocks, they are secured by two long loops of thong as in the diagram Fig. 344. To keep the oar from chafing the skin on the gunwale, they lash to the latter a long plate of bone. No. 89696 [1197] from Utkiavwĭñ is one of these plates. Two of these oars are commonly used in an umiak, one forward and one aft, and the women row with great vigor, swinging well from the hips, but do not keep stroke. The use of oars is so unusual among savages that it would be natural to suppose that these people had adopted the custom from the whites. If this be the case, the custom reached them long ago, and through very indirect channels.
When Thomas Simpson, in 1837, bought an umiak from some Point Barrow natives at Dease Inlet, he bought with it “four of their slender oars, which they used as tent poles, besides a couple of paddles; fitted the oars with lashings, and arranged our strange vessel so well that the ladies were in raptures, declaring us to be genuine Esquimaux, and not poor white men.”447 The custom, moreover, appears to be widespread since Lyon speaks of seeing in 1821, “two very clumsy oars with flat blades, pulled by women,” in the umiaks at Hudson Strait.448 It was practiced at a still earlier date in Greenland.449
Fig. 344.—Method of slinging the oar of umiak.
While at Point Barrow the oars have very narrow blades and the double paddles very broad ones, the reverse seemed to be the case in Greenland, where the double paddle, as already noticed, has blades not over 3 or 4 inches broad. Crantz describes the oars as “short and broad before, pretty much like a shovel, but only longer, and * * confined to their places on the gunnel with a strap of seal’s leather.” (Vol. 2, p. 149 and pl. VI) Although both oars and sails are undoubtedly quite ancient inventions (Frobisher in his description of Meta Incognita in Hakluyt’s Voyages (1589) pp. 621 and 628, speaks of skin boats with sails of entrail),450 I am strongly inclined to believe that they are both considerably more recent than the paddles, not only on general principles, but from the fact that the whaling umiaks at Point Barrow use only paddles. There is no practical reason against using either oars or sails, and in fact the latter would often be of great advantage in silently approaching a whale, as the American whalemen have long ago discovered. It seems to me that this is merely another case of adhering to an obsolete custom on semireligious grounds. The paddles are usually about 4 or 5 feet long, made of one piece of driftwood, with slender round shafts, and lanceolate blades about 6 inches broad, and a short rounded cross handle at the upper end. (Fig. 345 shows two of the paddles belonging to the model.) The steersman uses a longer paddle, and stands in the stern or sits up on the head of the sternpost.
Fig. 345.—Model of umiak and paddles: (a) side view; (b) inside plan.
Fig. 345a represents the model (No. 56563 [225] from Utkiavwĭñ), which gives a very good idea of the shape of one of these boats. It is quite correct in all its parts, though the timbers are rather too heavy, and there are not so many ribs and floor timbers as in a full-sized canoe. The breadth of beam, 6.2 inches, is at least 1 inch too great in proportion to the length, 25 inches. The cover is one piece of seal skin which has been partially tanned by the “white-tanning” process, and put on wet. In drying it has turned almost exactly the color of a genuine boat cover. The frame, as is often the case with a full-sized boat, is painted all over with red ocher. (See Fig. 345b, inside plan.)
Fig. 346.—Ivory bailer for umiak.
For bailing these boats a long narrow dipper of ivory or bone is used, of such a shape as to be especially well suited for working in between the floor timbers. Fig. 346 represents one of these (No. 56536 [40] from Utkiavwĭñ). It is a piece of walrus tusk 16.3 inches long. The cavity is 1.1 inches deep and was excavated by drilling vertical holes and cutting away the substance between them. Some of the holes have not been completely worked out. A similar bailer (No. 89835 [1010] also from Utkiavwĭñ) is made of reindeer antler, a substance much more easily worked than the ivory, as the soft interior tissue exposed by cutting the upper side flat is readily carved out. As with the walrus tusk, the natural curve of the material gives the proper inclination to the handle. It is 18.3 inches long.
When the umiak is fitted out for whaling a stout U-shaped crotch of ivory or bone, about 7 inches long and 5 wide, is lashed between the gunwales where they meet at the bow. In this the heavy harpoon rests when they are approaching a whale. It is only used when whaling. The Museum collection contains specimens of this sort from as far south as the Diomede Islands.
We brought home five specimens of these kû´nnɐ, of which No. 56510 [117] Fig. 347 has been selected as the type. This is made of two bilaterally symmetrical pieces of white walrus ivory, each piece consisting of one arm of the crotch and half the shank. Its total length is 7.8 inches. The two pieces are held together by a stout wooden tree-nail, and above this a lashing of sinew-braid, lodged in two deep vertical channels one on each side of the shank just below the arms, and wedged above and below on both sides with slips of wood. A hole is drilled through each side of the butt close to the end, and through these a lashing is stretched across the reentering angle of the butt consisting of four turns of sinew braid with the end closely wrapped round the parts between the holes, and neatly tucked in.
Just at the bend of each arm is a small round becket hole, running obliquely from the back to the outer side. In each of these is a neat becket, about ¾ inches long, made of several turns of sinew braid, with the end neatly wrapped around them. These beckets serve to receive the lashings for attaching the crotch to the gunwales. All the ornamental figures are incised and blackened.
Three of the remaining four specimens are of walrus-ivory, and of essentially the same pattern, differing only in ornamentation and other minor details. No. 56511 [116], from Utkiavwĭñ, is almost exactly like the type and of very nearly the same size. It is fastened together with a lashing only, but no treenail, and the beckets have been removed from the becket holes. The border is colored with red ocher, and there are two whales’ tails instead of one on the shank. The other two have the tips of the arms carved into the shape of whales’ heads. No. 89418 [1224], Fig. 348, from Utkiavwĭñ, is otherwise of the same shape as those already described, but is lashed together with stout seal thong, and has four beckets of the same material, two in the usual position and two at the widest part of the shank. These take the place of the loop running across the butt. On the middle of the back of each arm is a small cross incised and blackened with a small blue glass bead inlaid in the center, and there are two whale’s tails on the opposite face of the shank. It is 8 inches long.
No. 89419 [926], from Nuwŭk, has a nearly straight shank with a flange on each side at the butt. It is lashed together with whalebone and has also a treenail, like the type. The upper beckets are of sinew-braid. A large becket at the butt is made by looping and knotting the ends of a bit of thong into a hole in each flange. There is one whale’s tail engraved on the front of the shank. When lashed in position the front or ornamental side faces inboard, as is indicated by the shape of the shank, which is slightly narrower behind than in front, so as to fit between the converging gunwales. No. 8917 [1104], Fig. 349, from Nuwuk, the only one of the kind seen, is a very interesting form. It is made by cutting a horizontal slice out of the lower jaw of a walrus, so that it form the arms of the crotch, while the thick symphysis is cut into a shank of the usual shape, with the two upper beckets in the usual place and a large one at the butt, passing through a transverse hole. These beckets are roughly made of thong. Its total length is 6.6 inches.
This specimen from its soiled condition is undoubtedly quite ancient, and probably of an older type than the highly ornamented ivory crotches of the present day. The latter are evidently only copies of the jawbone crotch in a material susceptible of a higher finish than the coarse bone. The only reason for making them in two pieces is that it is impossible to get a single piece of walrus ivory large enough for a whole one. It seems to me highly probable that the crotch was suggested by the natural shape of the walrus jaw, since these are frequently used for crotches to receive the cross pieces of the cache frames. Perhaps, for a while, the whole jaw was simply lashed to the bow of the boat. The next step would obviously be to cut out the shank and reduce the weight of the crotch by trimming off the superfluous material. The reason for making the crotch of ivory is perhaps purely esthetic; but more likely connected with the notions already referred to which lead them to clean up their boats and gear and adorn themselves and paint their faces when they go to the whale fishery.
Although, as I have already stated, there appears to be no essential difference in the general plan of the frame of the Greenland umiaks and those used at Point Barrow, there seems to be considerable difference in the size and outward appearance. As well as can be judged from the brief descriptions and rude figures of various authors451 and various models in the National Museum (the correctness of which, however, I can not be sure of, without having seen the originals) the umiak not only in Greenland, but among the Eskimo generally as far west as the Mackenzie, is a much more wall sided square ended boat than at Point Barrow, having less sheer to the gunwales with the stem and stern-post nearly vertical.452 Mr. L. M. Turner informs me that this is the case at Ungava Bay. It was also a larger boat. Egede says that they “are large and open * * * some of them 20 yards long;”453 Crantz gives their length as “commonly 6, nay 8 or 9 fathoms long;”454 Kumlien says that it required “about fifteen skins of Phoca barbata” to cover an umiak at Cumberland Gulf,455 and Mr. Turner informs me that eight are used at Ungava. Capt. Parry found no umiaks at Fury and Hecla straits456 and Kumlien says that they are becoming rare at Cumberland Gulf. The so-called Arctic Highlanders of Smith Sound have no boats of any kind. The model used at Point Barrow probably prevails as far south as Kotzebue Sound. The boats that boarded us off Wainwright Inlet in the autumn of 1883, and those of the Nunatañmiun who visited Point Barrow, seemed not to differ from those with which we were familiar, except that the latter were rather light and low sided, nor do I remember anything peculiar about the boats which we saw at Plover Bay in 1881.
There is very little accessible detailed information regarding the umiaks used in the rest of Alaska. From Dall’s figure457 and a few models in the Museum, the Norton Sound umiak appears to have the gunwales united at both stem and stern. Those that we saw at St. Michael’s in 1883, were so much modified by Russian ideas as to be wholly out of the line of comparison. The same is true of the Aleutian “baidara,” if, indeed, the latter be an umiak at all.
Snowshoes of a very efficient pattern and very well made are now universally employed at Point Barrow. Although the snow never lies very deep on the ground, and is apt to pile up in hard drifts, it is sufficiently deep and soft in many places, especially on the grassy parts of the tundra, to make walking without snowshoes very inconvenient and fatiguing. I have even seen them used on the sea ice for crossing level spaces when a few inches of snow had fallen. Practically, every man in the two villages, and many of the women and boys, have each their own pair of snowshoes, fitted to their size. Each shoe consists of a rim of light wood, bent into the shape of a pointed oval, about five times as long as the greatest breadth, and much bent up at the rounded end, which is the toe. The sides are braced apart by two stout cross-bars (toe and heel bar) a little farther apart than the length of the wearer’s foot. The space between these two bars is netted in large meshes (foot netting) with stout thong for the foot to rest upon, and the spaces at the ends are closely netted with fine deerskin “babiche”458 (toe and heel netting). The straps for the foot are fastened to the foot netting in such a way that while the strap is firmly fastened round the ankle the snowshoe is slung to the toe. The wearer walks with long swinging strides, lifting the toe of the shoe at each step, while the tail or heel drags in the snow. The straps are so contrived that the foot can be slipped in and out of them without touching them with the fingers, a great advantage in cold weather. When deer hunting, according to Lieut. Ray, they take a long piece of thong and knot each end of it to the toe of one snowshoe. The bight is then looped into the belt behind so that the snowshoes drag out of the way of the heels. When they wish to put on the shoes they draw them up, insert their feet in the straps, and fasten the slack of the lines into the belt in front with a slip knot. When, however, they come to a piece of ground where snowshoes are not needed, they kick them off, slip the knots, and let them “drop astern.”
We brought home three pairs of snowshoes, which represent very well the form in general use. No. 89912 [1736], Fig. 350, has been selected as the type. The rim is of willow, 51 inches long and 10½ inches wide at the broadest part, and is made of two strips about 1 inch thick and ¾ wide, joined at the toe by a long lap-splice, held together by four short horizontal or slightly oblique stitches of thong. Each strip is elliptical in section, with the long axis vertical, and keeled on the inner face, except between the bars. Each is tapered off considerably from the toe bar to the toe, and slightly tapered toward the heel. The two points are fastened together by a short horizontal stitch of whalebone. The tip is produced into a slight “tail,” and the inner side of each shoe is slightly straighter than the outer—that is to say, they are “rights and lefts.”
The bars are elliptical in section, flattened, and have their ends mortised into the rim. They are about a foot apart, and of oak, the toe bar 9.2 inches long and the heel bar 8.5. Both are of the same breadth and thickness, 1 by ½ inch. There is also an extra bar for strengthening the back part of the shoe 10 inches from the point. It is also of oak, 4.8 inches long, 0.5 wide, and 0.3 thick. The toe and heel nettings are put on first. Small equidistant vertical holes run round the inside of each space. Those in the rim are drilled through the keel already mentioned, and joined by a shallow groove above and below; those in the bars are about ½ inch from the edge and joined by a groove on the under side of the toe bar only. Into these holes is laced a piece of babiche, which is knotted once into each hole, making a series of beckets about ¾ inch wide round the inside of the space. There are no lacing holes in the parts spliced at the toe, but the lacing passes through a bight of each stitch. At the toe bar the lacing is carried straight across from rim to rim about three times, the last part being wound round the others.
On the left shoe the end is brought back on the left-hand side, passed through the first hole in the bar from above, carried along in the groove on the underside to the next hole, up through this and round the lacing, and back through the same hole, the two parts being twisted together between the bar and lacing. This is continued, “stopping” the lacing in festoons to the bar, to the last hole on the right, where it is finished off by knotting the end round the last “stop.” The stops are made, apparently, by a separate piece on the right shoe. The lacing on the heel bar is also double or triple, but the last part, which is wound round the others, is knotted into each hole as on the rim. The lacings on the rim of the heel space are knotted with a single knot round each end of the extra bar.
In describing the nettings it will always be understood that the upper surface of the shoe is toward the workman, with the point upward, if describing the heel nettings, and vice versa for the toe. To begin with the heel netting, which is the simpler: This is in two parts, one from the heel bar to the extra bar (heel netting proper) and one from the latter to the point (point netting). The netting is invariably fastened to the lacing by passing the end through the becket from above and bringing it back over itself. In making the point netting the end of the babiche is knotted round the bar at the right-hand lower corner with a single knot. The other end goes up to the lacing at the point and comes down to the left-hand lower corner, where it is hitched round the bar, as in Fig. 351, then goes up to the lowest becket on the left side, crosses to the corresponding one on the right, and comes down and is hitched as before round the bar inside of the starting point. This makes a series of strands round the outside of the space, two running obliquely from right to left, a long one on the right side and a short one on the left side; two similar strands from left to right, the long one on the left and the short one on the right, and one transverse strand at the base of the triangle (see diagram, Fig. 352a). The next round goes up to the first becket at the top on the left hand, crosses to the corresponding one on the right, and then makes the same strands as the first round, running parallel to them and about half an inch nearer the center of the space (see diagram, Fig. 352b). Each successive round follows the last, coming each time about ½ inch nearer the center, till the space is all filled in, which brings the end of the last round to the middle of the bar, round which it is knotted with a single knot. This makes three sets of strands, two obliquely longitudinal, one set from right to left and one from left to right, and one transverse, all of each set parallel and equidistant, or nearly so, and each interwoven alternately over and under each successive strand it meets.