34 BULLETIN 127, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



differentiation from the Eskimo type is less marked than that be- 

 tween types of skin boats used by the Innuits. 



The larger open skin boat, known to the northern Eskimo as 

 " oomiak " or woman's boat, and to which the Aleut applies the 

 Russian name of " bidarra," is in common use from the extreme 

 north to the Aleutian Islands, being employed largely for transpor- 

 tation, but also, in some sections, serving a useful purpose for the 

 capture of whales, walrus, etc. Where the walrus is taken, its skin 

 is prized chiefly for building the oomiak, for which purpose the hide 

 is split in a most deft and skillful manner. 



These boats vary materially in size, ranging from about 20 to 

 upwards of 50 feet in length. Some of the largest are used for 

 transportation on the Yukon, on which river they carry large 

 freights. 



General reference has already been made to the skin boats of 

 British America. These are employed chiefly in northern Labrador, 

 notably in the Hudson Bay region, and in the vicinity of the Mac- 

 kenzie River. 



Mention has been made of the Greenland kaiak which, in its best 

 form, excels in beauty and symmetry as well as in finish all other 

 skin canoes of North America. 



The Greenland oomiak or woman's boat bears a close resemblance 

 to its prototype of the west coast of North America, from which it 

 differs in no essential particular. Indeed, while there are marked 

 differences of form and structure, so far as the kaiak is concerned, 

 the oomiak suggests a common origin ; and there seems no reason to 

 doubt that its design, as well as its method of construction, has been 

 carried from one portion of Arctic America to another, and, though 

 these ideas may have been disseminated centuries ago, they are still 

 adhered to with a faithfulness which indicates the appreciation felt 

 by the Eskimo for a boat which it would be practically impossible to 

 excel, if we consider the purpose for which it was built. 



In those regions of North America where the birch tree abounds 

 its bark has been extensively utilized for the building of boats, to 

 which purpose it is eminently adapted, since it is light, elastic, and, 

 with care, very durable. The skill attained by the Indian in the 

 building of birch canoes is as remarkable as that of the Eskimo in 

 constructing skin boats. For it is not simply the fact that the 

 aborigine devises a means of flotation, but that at the same time 

 he constructs a fabric which challenges our admiration for its sym- 

 metry and its adaptation to the purpose for which it was designed. 

 In all the field of naval architecture it is difficult to find a boat which 

 in design and construction in so high a degree combines lightness, 

 buoyancy, strength, and speed. 



