ABOEIGIKAL AMERICAN BASKETRY. 425 



which in the weaving- is kept of uniform thiclcness by adding fresh 

 material. Foundations are also in narrow strips of wood. Mr. Teit 

 makes the important assertion that the stitches of the preceding- coil 

 are intentionally split b}^ the awl. Examples of this kind of work are 

 common in collections. On the bottom and back as well as ends of the 

 baskets ornamental strips are often overlaid or decorated l)y a proc- 

 ess here called beading. In many examples strips of cedar and other 

 woods are used as foundations. The method of ornamentation employed 

 is imbrication, described on page 310, the material for the overlaying 

 being a glossy yellow-white grass. 



As soon as enough is known about the geographic distribution of 

 this imbricated type of weaving a bettin- classitication can he made. 

 The following characteristics will sufhce as a general guid(»: 



1. F<)un<lathin. — Either a I)undle of splints, someAvhat cylindrical in 

 form, oi- narrow Hat strips of wood usually laid in pairs. 



iJ. SciriiKj. — All done in splints of root; in some baskets the stitch 

 is carefully and systematically l)ifurcated on the outside, in others 

 whole. 



3. Bott<ym. — Either a flat spiral circular or eilipticid in outline, as 

 in most of the Washington varieties and in some of the farthest 

 removed of the British C-olumbia specimens, or a series of straight 

 rows of sewing. The bottoms of many of the baskets of this last type 

 are receding, and even a border is built up outside of the structure of 

 the basket. (Compare Plate 157 with Plate 103. ) 



■1. (rOKi'dl s/i<//)f. — Either conical, rectangular, pyramidal, or 

 fanciful. 



5. .Decoration. — Designs covering the whole surface; designs on the 

 upper part of the surface only; and designs around the middle, leaving 

 the top and ])ottom plain or separately figured. In some heading is 

 mixed with the imbricated ornament. It may not amount to tribal 

 diti'erences, but some baskets are decorated in front with iml)rications, 

 and plain or beaded on the back and ends. Jt is impossible with the 

 knowledge at present in liand to make a perfect ethnic chai't of this 

 wonderfully \aried type of workmanshi}). 



Plate 150 is a covered basket box in imbricated coiled work, from 

 Douglas Harbor, liritish Columbia, now in the collection of Fred 

 Harvey, Albucpierque, New Mexico. Th(» foundation and sewing are 

 of cedar or spruce root, and the im)>rications are in s(]uaw grass and 

 cedar bark. The noticeal)le feature in this s})ecimen is the coiled 

 work. In order to diminish the amount of sewing, the basket maker 

 has thought of the expedient used 1)V the Mescalero Apache Indians 

 of the south, and seen on specimens from other localities, of widening 

 the foundation of the coil. In the Douglas Harbor examples, strips 

 of wood take the place of two or more stems arranged one above 

 another. 



Plate 15T represents Thompson River and Eraser River coiled 



