MURDOCH.] KAIAKS. 333 



been figured and described by many authors. It is quite as light and 

 sharp as the Point Harrow model, but has a flat floor, the bilge being 

 angular instead of rounded, and it has considerably more sheer to the. 

 deck, the stem and stern being prolonged into long curved points, which 

 project above the water, and are often shod with bone or ivory. The 

 coaming of the cockpit also is level, or only slightly raised forward. 

 The kaiaks used in Baffin Land, Hudson Straits, and Labrador are of 

 a very similar model, but larger and heavier, having the projecting 

 points at the bow and stern rather shorter and less sharp, and the 

 coaming of the cockpit somewhat more raised forward. Both of these 

 forms are represented by specimens and numerous models in the museum 

 collections. I have seen one flat-floored kaiak at Point Barrow. It 

 belonged to a youth and was very narrow and light. 



The kaiak in use at Fury and Hecla Straits, as described by Oapt. 

 Lyon 1 and Capt. Parry - is of a somewhat different model, approaching 

 that used at the Anderson River. It is a large kaiak 25 feet long, witli 

 the bow and stern sharp and considerably more bent up than in the 

 Greenland kaiaks, but round-bottomed, like the western kaiaks. The 

 deck is flat, with the cockpit coaming somewhat raised forward. 3 



In the kaiaks used at the Anderson and Mackenzie rivers, as shown 

 by the models in the National Museum, the bending up of the stem and 

 stern posts is carried to an extreme, so that they make an angle of 

 about 130 with the level of the deck. The bottom is round and the 

 cockpit nearly level, but sufficient room for the knees and feet is obtained 

 by arching not only the deck beams just forward of the cockpit, but all 

 of them from stem to stern, so that the deck slopes away to each side 

 like the roof of a house. At Point Barrow, as already described, the 

 deck beams are arched only just forward of the cockpit, and the stem 

 and stern are not prolonged. This appears to be the prevailing form 

 of canoe at least as far south as Kotzebue Sound and is sometimes used 

 by the Malemiut of Norton Sound. At Port Clarence the heavy, large 

 kaiak, so common from Norton Sound southward, appears to be in use 

 from Nordenskiold s description, as he speaks of the kaiaks holding two 

 persons, sitting back to back in the cockpit. 4 The kaiaks of the south 

 western Eskimo are, as far as I have been able to learn, large and 

 heavy, with level coamings, with the deck quite steeply arched fore and 

 aft, and with bow and stern usually of some peculiar shape, as shown 

 by models in the Museum. See also Ball s figure (Alaska, p. 15.)* 



.Journal, p. 233. 



&quot;Second voyage, p. 506, and pis. opposite pp. - 74 and 508. 



3 There is quite a discrepancy in regard lo this between Capt. Lyon s description referred to above 

 and the two platesdrawn by him in Parry s second voyage. In his journal hi- speaks of .tho coaming of 

 the cockpit being about 9 inches higher forward than it i.s aft, while from his figures the difference 

 does not appear to be more than 3 or 4 inches. 



4 Vega, vol. 2, p. 228. 



6 1 have confined myself in the above comparison simply to the kulaks used by undoubted Eskimo. 

 I find merely casual references to the kaiak* used on the Siberian coast by the .Awiatic Kskinm and 

 their companions the Sedentary Chuckchis. while a discussion of the canoes of the Aleuts would carry 

 me beyond the limits of the present work. 



