To a far greater degree than any other boat of 

 similar size, this Eskimo boat is characterized by 

 great strength combined with lightness. 



The decked hunting canoe, the kayak, is propelled 

 by paddle alone when used for hunting and fishing, 

 but is occasionally towed by the umiak when the 

 owner travels. The kayak is perhaps the most efficient 

 example of a primitive hunting boat; it can be pro- 

 pelled at high speed by its paddler and maneuvered 

 with ease. These hunting kayaks are commonly 

 built to hold but one person, though one group of 

 Eskimo built the kayaks to carry two or three. The 

 kayak, remarkable for its seaworthiness, lightness and 

 strength, has l^een perhaps one of the most important 

 tools in the Eskimo fight for existence. Few tribes 

 have been unacquainted with its use. Because of its 

 employment, the kayak often has to be designed to 

 meet very particular requirements and so there is 

 greater variation in its form and dimensions than in 

 the umiak. 



Seagoing skin boats have not been common outside 

 the Arctic in historical times. In fact only the 

 European Celts are known with certainty to have 

 used such craft. The Irish, in particular, employed 

 large seagoing skin boats as late as the reign of 

 Queen Elizabeth of England; a drawing of one pre- 

 served in the Pepysian Library was reproduced in the 

 Mariner's Mirror (vol. 8, 1922, facing p. 200). Al- 

 though there can be little doubt that large seagoing 

 skin craft had been more widely used in prehistoric 

 times, the perishable nature of the skin covering and 

 the light framework probably account for the lack 

 of any archeological remains that would indicate its 

 range. The availability of the materials required in 

 its construction, however, suggest that its use could 

 have been very widespread. The long voyages made 

 by the Irish, in the dawning of recorded history, 

 could well have made its design and construction 

 known to others. 



There are still many skin boats in use by primitive 

 people and even a few survivals in Europe, but with 

 the exception of the Irish "curragh," these craft are 

 designed for inland waters and are either rather 

 dish-shaped, or oval in plan, like half a walnut shell. 

 In design they are related to the coracle of ancient 

 Britain rather than to a seagoing skin boat of the 

 Irish or Eskimo type. Both the Irish curragh and 

 the British coracle, now, of course, are covered with 

 canvas rather than hide. 



Traditions of long voyages by the ancient Irish in 

 the skin-covered curragh make it apparent that such 



voyages were relatively common, and the design 

 and construction of existing models of the curragh 

 and umiak indicate that these voyages could have 

 been made with reasonable safety. Compared to the 

 dugout canoe, the skin boat was far lighter and 

 roomier in proportion to length and so could carry 

 a far greater load and still retain enough freeboard 

 to be safe. The size of the early skin boats cannot 

 be established with certainty; the modern Irish 

 curragh is probably debased in this respect, but 

 early explorers of Greenland reported umiaks nearly 

 60 feet in length and there is no structural reason 

 why the curragh could not have been as large or 

 even larger. 



Compared with the curragh, the umiak is lighter, 

 stronger, and more resistant to shock. The curragh 

 was built with closely spaced bent frames and longi- 

 tudinal stringers to support the skin cover, whereas 

 the umiak has very widely spaced frames and few 

 longitudinals, giving the skin cover little support. 

 The diff^erence in construction is undoubtedly a result 

 of the type of covering used, for the curragh was 

 covered with cattle hides, which were less strong 

 than the seal or walrus skins used by the Eskimo. 

 The strong and elastic skin cover of the umiak and 

 the lack of a rigid structural support gives this boat 

 an advantage in withstanding the shocks of beaching 

 or of working in floating ice; and because of its rela- 

 tively light framework and the method of securing 

 the structural members, its frame is far more flexible 

 than that of the curragh, adding to this ability. 



The skin cover of the curragh was made watertight 

 by rubbing the hides with animal fat, and the sewn 

 seams were payed with tallow. The Eskimo soak 

 the skin cover of the umiak with animal oil and pay 

 the seams with blubber or animal fat. Both treat- 

 m_ents produced a cover initially watertight but 

 requiring drying and reoiling to remain so. Under 

 most climatic conditions in the North Atlantic or 

 Pacific the oiled skins remain watertight from four 

 days to a week. This period can be lengthened by 

 various methods; skin boats travelling in company 

 can be dried out in turn by unloading one and placing 

 it aboard a companion craft. There is evidence 

 of other methods of treating the skin covering; 

 waterproofing it with melted tallow, for example, 

 or with a vegetable gum or a resin such as pitch, would 

 enable it to remain watertight for a much longer time, 

 though such treatments would make the covering 

 less elastic. Pitch was also used at one time in curragh 

 building, and it would be unwise to assume that the 



176 



