but in Alaska are kayaks that can carry two or three 

 paddlers, each in a manhole or cockpit, or a paddler 

 and one or two passengers. It is generally conceded 

 that the kayak built to carry three in this fashion 

 is the result of Russian influence. Nunivak Island 

 kayaks had large manholes that carried two people 

 back-to-back. Where it is desirable to portage the 

 kayak over ice or land for a great distance the boat 

 is very light and is capable of being carried like a 

 large basket, by inserting one arm under the decking 

 at the manhole or cockpit, but where such a require- 

 ment is not an important factor, the kayaks are often 

 rather large and heavy. In the majority of types, 

 the degree of seaworthiness obtained is very great. 

 Some types are built very narrow and sharp-ended; 

 these usually require a skillful paddler. Others are 

 wide and more stable, requiring less skill to use. In 

 areas where severe weather is commonly met, the 

 kayaks are usually very strong and well-designed. 

 Where ice or other conditions do not allow a heavy 

 sea to make up, the kayaks are often light, narrow 

 and very low sided — more like racing shells than 

 working canoes. Most Alaskan kayaks come stern 

 to the wind when paddling stops, but most of the 

 eastern craft come head to the wind. Nearly every 

 type has been developed by long periods of trial and 

 error, to produce the greatest efficiency in meeting 

 the conditions of use in a given locality. This has 

 made the kayak a more complicated and more 

 developed instrument of the chase than is to be 

 found in any other form of hunting canoe, due in 

 part, perhaps, to the great craftmanship of the 

 Eskimo. 



The construction of the kayak follows a basic plan. 

 In all kayaks the gunwales are the main strength 

 members, longitudinally. A few designs employ, in 

 addition, a stiff keel member, but most have rather 

 slender and light longitudinal batten systems having 

 little longitudinal strength value, but which in com- 

 bination with very light frames, give transverse 

 support to the skin cover. Even in the flat-bottom 

 models, the kayaks, unlike the umiaks, depend 

 entirely upon the gunwales for longitudinal strength. 

 The frames are bent and in one piece from gunwale 

 to gunwale in all but a few flat-bottom kayaks, of 

 the sampan cross section; these employ bent frames. 

 The longitudinal batten systems show great variety. 

 The eastern kayaks of the flat-bottom and V-bottom 

 models have three longitudinal battens (including the 

 keel or keelson) in addition to the heavy and often 

 deep gunwale members; these are supported at bow 



and stern either by stem and stern post of shaped 

 plank on edge as in the Greenland V-bottom kayaks, 

 or by light extensions of the keelson and small end- 

 blocks as in the northern Greenland, Baffin Island, 

 and Labrador types. The multi-chine types of the 

 western Arctic have from seven to eleven longitudinals 

 (including the keelson) in addition to the gunwales. 

 In some of these kayaks there are no stem and stern 

 posts, the battens and keelson coming together at a 

 blunt point in small head blocks; but many types have 

 rather intricate stem-pieces, carved from blocks of 

 wood, and plank-on-edge stern posts. The Asiatic kay- 

 aks, curiously enough, exhibit the construction of both 

 eastern and western Arctic kayaks, the crude, small 

 Koryak kayak having a 3-batten V-bottom, while the 

 Chukchi kayak is built like the kayaks on the east side 

 of the Bering Strait. The decking of kayaks is of very 

 light construction; usually there are two heavy thwarts 

 to support the manhole and from one to three light 

 thwarts afore and abaft these. The Alaskan kayaks 

 from Kotzebue Sound southward have ridged decks 

 supported by fore-and-aft ridge-battens from the 

 ends of the hull to the manhole. Elsewhere the deck 

 of the kayak is flat athwartship except at the manhole, 

 where there is some crown or ridging to increase the 

 depth inside the boat, particularly forward of the 

 manhole. In the majority of these kayaks short 

 fore-and-aft battens are laid on the thwarts forward 

 of the manhole to support the skin cover in its sweep 

 upward to the manhole. The transverse frames do 

 not come into contact with the skin cover, to avoid 

 transverse ridges being formed in it; and the longi- 

 tudinal battens which support the skin cover form 

 longitudinal ridges, or chines, in it. 



The timber used in the Eskimo kayak building is 

 usually driftwood. Fir and pine, spruce or willow 

 are available in much of the Arctic for longitudinals. 

 Bent frames are commonly of willow. Scarphing in 

 the framework of kayaks was far less common than in 

 umiaks; the scarphs when found are only in the gun- 

 wales. All scarphs are of the hooked type and are 

 usually quite short (the hooked scarph is the best one 

 when the fastenings are lashings). Sinew is generally 

 used in all lashings and for sewing material. The 

 heads of frames are commonly tenoned into the 

 underside of the gunwales and are then either lashed 

 or pegged with treenails of wood or bone to hold 

 them in place. In the joining of frames and longi- 

 tudinals, the lashings are commonly individual, but 

 in some types of kayak continous lashings (con- 

 nections in series using one length of sinew) are 



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