Umiak, West Coast of Alaska, King Island, if 

 Mariner's Museum. 



Taken off umiali at 



/V J//7'ching- 



f/es/? J/£j'if 



Pnc^ Jecf/77 



Blind iewing c^nd 5ec\n\ 

 usec^ in skin- cover 



Figure 170 



Making the Blind Seam: two stages of method 

 used by the Eskimo to join skins together. The 

 edge of the skins are placed flesh side to flesh 

 side with one overlapping the other about 2 

 inches. Then, by means of a thin needle and 

 slender sinew, the skins are sewn together, with 

 an over-and-over stitch, care being taken not 

 to penetrate through the lower skin. When this 

 is completed the skins are opened out and the 

 second seam made on the grain side to com- 

 plete a double seam without penetration of 

 either skin. The width of the seam varies 

 somewhat. 



dimensions. Green skins are generally preferred, 

 since they stretch into shape better than partly or 

 wholly cured ones. Once stretched to shape and 

 cured, the cover can be readily removed and replaced, 

 without resewing. In fitting a new skin cover the 



skins are first thoroughly soaked in seawater. The 

 cover is then stretched over the frame and worked 

 taut by lacings. It is wide enough to reach from 

 gunwale to gunwale and a little down inside the boat 

 on each side, and is laced to the rising batten with 

 turns of rope spaced 3 to 5 inches apart amidships 

 ard closer together in the ends of the hull. At the 

 headboards the cover is laced around the gunwales 

 and through holes in the headboards, two independent 

 lacings of two turns each being used on each side. 

 At the extreme bow and stern the cover is laced to 

 the gunwale lashings. Where the cover will not 

 stretch smooth in fitting, gores appear to have been 

 cut out and the skin resewn. After being laced, 

 the cover is allowed to shrink until it becomes smooth 

 and tight, then it is heavily oiled and the seams rubbed 

 with tallow or blubber. This treatment is repeated 

 at regular intervals. While the boat is in service 

 care is taken to dry out the skin cover once a day, 

 if possible. 



The sequence of construction described is not 

 followed universally; sometimes spreaders are fixed 

 between the gunwhales, which are then sheered by 

 thongs to the keelson, after which the side frames are 

 put in and the side and rising battens, and finally the 

 thwarts, are added. Judging by the numerous models 

 seen, the small hunting umiaks varied a good deal in 

 the rake and sweep of the bow and stern, even in the 

 same village. These hunting umiaks worked with 

 kayaks in Aleutian walrus and sea-lion hunting; a 

 practice that seems to have once been common along 



