

Repairing Umiak Frame at St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, 1930. 

 {Photo by Henry D. Collins.) 



Eskimo Woman Splitting Walrus Hide to 

 make umiak cover, St. Lawrence Island, 

 Alaska, 1930. {Photo by Henry B. Collins.) 



oil treatment used by the Eskimo was their only 

 method of producing watertight skin covers in the 

 period before they were first observed by Europeans. 

 The fundamental difference between the construc- 

 tion of the curragh and that of the umiak lies in the 

 type of longitudinal strength members and the trans- 



verse framing used. The curragh, like the birch- 

 bark canoe, depended entirely upon its gunwales for 

 longitudinal strength, whereas the umiak has a strong 

 keel, or, properly, a keelson since the keel was inside 

 the skin cover. The curragh used longitudinal 

 battens to support the skin cover. The umiak, on 

 the other hand, has in its chine timbers rather strong 

 longitudinal members that give additional strength 

 to the bottom. Its transverse frames, unlike those of 

 the curragh which were continuous from gunwale to 

 gunwale, are in three sections, two side pieces and a 

 floor, or bottom, member and the frame members 

 are joined to gunwale, chines and keelson by lashings 

 of sinew, whalebone, or hide, a method that, together 

 with three-part frames, gives great flexibility to the 

 framework. The frame of the early curragh may have 

 been lashed, but because of the other fundamental 

 differences in design and construction it was less 

 flexible than that of the umiak. 



The basic features of the uiniak frame are not 

 found in the kayak, the structure of which in most 

 types approaches that of the curragh. The gunwale 

 is the strength member in the kayak, and some types 

 have a rather extensive longitudinal batten system 

 as well. In only a few types of kayak is the keelson 

 an important strength member, and even here the 

 gunwales are of primary importance. The hypothesis 

 has been offered that this indicates a different parent- 

 age for the kayak than for the umiak, and that the 

 umiak represents the earlier type, it being argued that 

 this type of boat was the one more required in migra- 

 tory periods, and so would be first developed. Such 



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