154 CRUISE of THE NEPTUNE 
boat or kyak. The men bring in the animals and skin them, 
after which the skins are handed to the women to dress: 
If they are to be used to repair the tent, or for bags, they are 
simply dried by stretching them on wooden pegs about six 
inches above the ground. If they are required to cover the kyak, 
or for boots, the hair is scraped off with an ordinary chopping 
knife, against the grain, and the film is removed from the inner 
skin. For winter boots, the hair is rotted off and the skin has a 
white colour, but it is not water-proof. 
As soon as a convenient level spot of ground is bare of snow 
the snow-house is abandoned and the summer tent erected. The 
tent is of a ridge-pole pattern, with the ridge from six to ten 
feet long, resting in the front in the socket between two crossed 
poles and at the rear terminating at the apex of a number of 
poles which form a half cone to the back of the tent. The ridge 
is about six or seven feet high, and the frame over all about 
twelve feet long and about nine feet wide on the ground. The 
covering is made either of seal or deer skins, except in the case 
of a man of wealth, who has a cover of cotton. Both the seal 
and deer skins used for this purpose are dressed with the hair 
on, and are used with the hairy side exposed. 
This is the time to repair, and if necessary make new, wooden 
frames for the kyak. The kyak is a long narrow boat sharply 
pointed at both ends, and entirely decked over except a small 
well sufficiently large for the entrance of a man's body. The 
frame is of wood, and is covered with sealskins sewn together 
to make a water-tight cover. Each tribe has a slightly different 
model, the difference being in the shape of the bow or stern or 
in the relative width. The Labrador kyak, common to the 
Atlantic coast and Hudson bay and strait, is nearly twenty 
feet long, and over two feet wide in the middle, or well section. 
It has a long sharp bow, which leaves the water about 
six feet from the forward end, where it stands about fifteen 
inches above the water. The stern is lower and less sharp, 
