328 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. 



MEANS OF LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPOKTATION. 

 TRAVELING BY WATEli. 



Kaialat and paddle*. Like all the rest of the Eskimo race, the natives 

 of Point Barrow use the kaiak, or narrow, light, skin-covered canoe, 

 completely decked over except at the middle, where there is a hole or 

 cockpit in which the man sits. Although nearly every male above the 

 age of boyhood owns and can manageone of these canoes, they are much 

 less generally employed than by any other Eskimo whose habits have 

 been described, except the &quot;Arctic highlauders, who have no boats, 

 and perhaps those of Siberia and their (Jhuckche companions. The 

 kaiak is used only during the season of open water, and then but little 

 in the sea in the neighborhood of the villages. Those who remain near 

 the villages in the summer use the kaiak chiefly for making the short 

 excursions to the lakes and streams inland, already described, after 

 reindeer, and for making short trips from camp to camp along the coast. 

 At Pernyu they are used in setting the stake-nets and also for retriev 

 ing fowl which have fallen in the water when shot. 



According to Dr. Simpson 1 the men of the parties which go east in 

 the summer travel in their kaiaks after reaching the open water u to 

 make room in the large boat for the oil-skins.&quot; We obtained no infor 

 mation regarding this. It is at this time, probably, that the kaiak comes 

 specially in play for spearing molting fowl and &quot;flappers&quot;, and for catch 

 ing seals with the kiikiga. They manage the kaiak with great skill and 

 confidence, but we never knew them to go out in rough weather, nor 

 did we ever see the practice, so frequently described elsewhere, of tying 

 the skirts of the waterproof jacket round the coaming of the cockpit so 

 as to exclude the water. 



It should, however, be borne in mind that from the reasons above 

 stated our opportunities for observing the use of the kaiak were very 

 limited. At all events it is certain that the people depend mainly on 

 the umiak, not only for traveling, but for hunting and fishing as well, 

 which places them in strong contrast with the Greenlanders, who are 

 essentially a race of kaiakers and have consequently developed the boat 

 and its appendages to a high state of perfection. 



We brought home one complete full-sized kaiak, with its paddle, No. 

 57773 [~&amp;gt;39], Fig. 3. 58 and l&amp;gt;, which is a very fair representative of the 

 canoes used at Point Barrow. This is 19 feet long and 18 inches wide 

 amidships. The gunwales are straight, except for a very slight sheer at 

 the bow, and the cockpit is 21 inches long and 18i inches wide. It has 

 a frame of wood, which appears to be all of spruce, held together by 

 treenails and whalebone lashings, and is covered with white- tanned seal 

 skins with the grain side out. The stoutest part of the frame is the two 

 gunwales, each3 inches broad and J-iuch thick, flat, and rounded oft on 

 the upper edge inside, running the whole length of the boat and meet- 



1 Op. cit. p. 264. 



