310 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
and looped around the inside of the frame as above. The Athabaskan 
snowshoe is made with a two-piece frame spliced in front into a rounded 
form; the loops go into the turns of the splicing and avoid the vertical 
holes there. (3) The hexagonal mesh in the foot-space, Algonkian 
type, is around the frame in a series of hitches or turns. This is 
sometimes used in the Athabaskan type when the foot-space is netted 
with hexagonal mesh. (4) In the Eskimoan type with rectangular 
and irregular meshing the transverse strands pass through horizontal 
holes in the frame, and at right angles to it, say, across the spacing 
from one side of the frame through the hole on the other side from 
inside to outside, then along the outside of the frame to the next hole 
and back again through it to the corresponding hole in the other side 
of the frame, and so on till the spacing is filled up. The longitudinal 
strands are attachments to the cross-bars either through slots, holes or 
around the cross bars. 
In addition to the difference in meshing and the method of attach- 
ment to the frame, there are distinctions in the way of shape and turn- 
up which make fairly typical tribal forms, but, as will be seen later on, 
these tribal forms are somewhat complicated by transitions. 
The typical Eskimoan snowshoe has the rectangular or irregular 
mesh in which the strands pass through the sides of the frame. The 
shoe is pointed at both ends, made of two pieces, has two cross-bars 
and is well turned up in the front. The netting in the toe and heel 
spaces is either wanting or very irregular and rudimentary. As the 
snow is hard in the Arctic regions the snowshoe is short, and it usually 
has a string from the toe to the front cross-bar. It is illustrated by 
figures 6 and 7 in plate 1. Figure 6 represents the typical form, and 
the same shoe is used by the Siberian Eskimo. It is from the Alaskan 
coast but the exact locality is unknown. The example is 30 inches 
long and 9 inches wide. It has rudimentary netting in the toe and 
heel spaces and it is well turned up in the front. 
Figure 7 represents an almost flat form from the mouth of the 
Yukon. The length is 364 inches and the width 95 inches. It 
apparently had rudimentary netting in the toe and heel spacings 
which is now destroyed, and it is probably a transitional form. The 
Eskimo now use the more finished shoe of the Athabaskans as shown 
in plate 2. 
The rectangular Athabaskan form is long and narrow, turned up in 
front and usually right and left. It has a two-piece frame neatly 
spliced in front, bent into a rounded form and finished up with a 
trailer behind. Very often there is a string from the toe to the front 
cross-bar and it almost always has an extra cross-bar in the heel 
spacing which is knitted into the mesh. The toe and heel netting 
