218 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH.ANN. 18 



floats, which are inflated and lashed under the rail on the outside, to 

 prevent the boat from swamping. 



Sometimes umiaks are driven out to sea by storms and their occu 

 pants are unable to regain the shore, when the dashing spray and the 

 waves soak the cover and the rawhide lashings of the frame until they 

 relax and the boat collapses, drowning all on board. 



From Kotzebue sound northward the umiaks are very similar to 

 those of Norton sound, but are slightly narrower. At the former place, 

 during the summer of 1881, I saw a number of umiaks, each of which 

 had a figure of a man painted roughly in black close to the bow. 

 The umiaks of the Yukon and adjacent country, and thence southward, 

 are commonly ornamented, on the middle of each side, with the fig 

 ure of a mythic, alligator- like animal called pcil-rai -yuk; the head, with 

 open mouth and projecting tongue, is close to the bow, while the tail 

 reaches the stern (figure 156). 



The umiaks seen among the Eskimo south of East cape, Siberia, at 

 Mechigme bay, St Lawrence island, and Plover bay, were all very much 

 narrower than those of Norton sound, and with very little sheer to 

 their sides; some of them seemed to have almost perpendicular sides. 

 All of the umiaks used in the latter region are provided with a set of 

 sealskin floats to fasten along the outside below the rail in rough 

 weather, which render the boats very buoyant, and but little water can 

 be shipped even in very stormy weather. With their boats fitted in 

 this manner with inflated floats, these people sail fearlessly along their 

 stormy coasts and cross back and forth between the mainland and St 

 Lawrence island. 



The oars used in the umiaks of the American mainland are kept in 

 position by means of rawhide stays, which are attached firmly to a 

 notch in the part of the oar which rests on the rail; the stays extend 

 fore-and-aft a short distance and are fastened to the side pieces on the 

 inside below the rail. The steering is performed with a broad-blade pad 

 dle. On St Lawrence island oarlocks have been copied from those seen 

 on whaling vessels. An example of these (figure 34, plate LXXVIII), 

 made of oak, is provided with a pin to fit in a hole in the rail of the 

 boat, and its upper portion is pierced to receive the oar. 



Figure 19. plate LXXVIII, represents an ivory block, from Sledge 

 island, used for the rigging of an umiak. Another form of these blocks, 

 from the same place, is shown in figure 20 of the same plate. A hand 

 somely made little block from Cape Nome (figure 21, plate LXXVIII), has 

 the head of a seal carved in relief on the lower side. 



A smaller boat or canoe, called kai ak, is also used along the Ameri 

 can coast and the adjacent islands; but I have never seen one among 

 the people of the Siberian coast nor among the St Lawrence islanders. 

 It is decked over, except a hole amidships, where the navigator sits. 

 They vary somewhat in size and shape in different localities, but the 

 general plan of construction is the same. 



