ESKIMO BOATS IN THE NORTHWEST. 683 



middle where the man gets in and sits with his legs under the for- 

 ward deck. 



All the Eskimos, except perhaps some of them who live in the 

 wooded regions of southeastern Alaska, who are said to use birch- 

 bark canoes like the Indians, cover their boats with the skins of 

 marine animals, using the skins of the larger seals for the umiak, 

 and those of the small seals for the kayak. 



It is no small undertaking for a man at Point Barrow to col- 

 lect wood enough for the frame of an umiak, for he has only the 

 drift-wood on the beach to select from, and the larger parts are 

 often elaborately pieced together. When a suitable stick for mak- 

 ing a stem or stern-post is found, the finder marks it for his own 

 and it is the unwritten law of the community that such marked 

 property shall be respected and when he has leisure goes out with 

 his little adze and works away at it on the beach till he has hewn 

 it into shape before he brings it home. 



"When he has at length collected all the pieces for the frame, he 

 begins to put them together, without using a single nail in the 

 whole structure. The heavy parts of the frame are neatly mor- 

 tised together and secured with wooden pegs, while the lighter 

 parts, such as ribs and gunwales, are secured by regularly sewing 

 them with long, thin strips of whalebone, which are run through 

 holes drilled in the two parts to be united. 



The following pieces make up the frame of the umiak : Along 

 the middle of the bottom runs one long timber, to the ends of which 

 are scarfed the stem and stern-post, made of natural knees, and 

 slanting so that the top of the boat is longer than the bottom. The 

 top of each part is widened into a square block. This makes a 

 high seat for the steersman in the stern and a sort of shelf in the 

 bow. On each side of the bottom is another stout strip of wood, 

 deeper than the keel, which make the edges of the flat bottom, be- 

 ing bent in and scarfed to the stem and stern-post, but spread apart 

 amidships by the floor timbers, which are laid across the keel in- 

 side, but mortised into these side strips. There are a dozen or fif- 

 teen floor timbers, longest, of course, in the middle of the boat. 



From the side strips rise fifteen or twenty pairs of ribs, fastened 

 on with lashings of whalebone. These slope out a good deal amid- 

 ships, but grow more nearly vertical toward the bow and stern. 

 On the ends of these ribs are lashed the gunwales, round poles 

 about two inches in diameter, running from bow to stern on each 

 side. These run out beyond the stem and meet in a point, but 

 only project a little beyond the stern-post. Along the ribs inside, 

 about half-way down, is fastened a stout strip of wood on which 

 the seats or thwarts, seven or eight in number, are secured, and 

 to strengthen the frame still more another strip is fastened on out- 

 side of the ribs. 



