428 KEPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



one-eighth of an inch for the next stitch to rest on, (4) makes her 

 stitch, draws it home, and bends the grass strip over and covers it. 

 It is a kind of knife jjlaiting- hekl down by coiled sewing and is an 

 invention of this region." 



Plate 15S, fig. 1, is an example of the Salishan or older type on the 

 coast of Washington. It is specimen Xo. 2G12, U. S. National Museum, 

 collected ])y Capt. Charles Wilkes. 



The imbricated basketiy of Washington is divided l)y ]V[rs. Molson 

 into two classes, by districts. The eastern slope of the Cascade or 

 Yakima district belongs to the arid plateau of eastei'n Washington 

 and the ])asket technic is heavy, staunch, and of good workmanship, 

 but it shows the eli'ect of climate. But the western or Cowlitz liiver 

 district produced the perfect imbricated basket, with more coils to 

 the inch, more stitches in the same space and also more })eautiful 

 designs. 



I am indebted to Mrs. Harriet K. McArtluir for copies of the old 

 records relating to the southern imitricated ])askets. The most abso- 

 lutei}' beautiful and perfect baskets of this type were made on Cowlitz 

 and Lewis rivers in Washington. These places are but a short dis- 

 tance from Portland, over in Washington. No imbricated l)askets 

 were ever made south of the Columbia, the finest and best are from 

 west of the Cascade Mountains. The shaping is more graceful, being 

 "woven much finer, and the designs are far more intricate. They 

 rarely have the openings around the top for lacing strings. Beautiful 

 ones come from the Skokomish ReserA^ation and from the coast, but 

 they may have reached these remote places through the medium of 

 trade. 



Immersion in water, charcoal, and l)ark dyes is practiced. Cherry 

 bark is employed much in British Colum])ia, and sometimes by the 

 Klikitats who occasionally put in willow hark which shrinks and 

 leaves an ugly stitch. The rare ones with colors — not the tine old 

 brown, yellow, and 1)lack, but old rose and purple, are valuable because 

 the}" are rare. The old rose is a berry stain and the purple is from a 

 root; but they will never rival the old brown in beauty. 



The typical coiled and im])ricated biiskets from west Washington, 

 therefore, may l)e called the Cowlitz type. According to Dr. Boas 

 most of them are made on the Cowlitz River and north to Fraser 

 River. He also l)ears witness that the split sewing and the interlocking 

 of stitches are both practiced. The Athapascans seem to have dwelt 

 originally in this area, and it is just possible that they carried the 

 coiling everywhere. 



The so-called Klikitat baskets are now found on the Yakima Reser- 

 vation, in Klikitat and Cowlitz counties, along the Columbia River, in 

 the vicinity of The Dalles. 



"Mrs^. \V. :\I. :\rolson, Basketry of the Pacific CoaHt, Portland, Oregon, 1896. 



