334 



THE POINT BAKKOW ESKIMO. 



While the kaiuk, however, (lifters so much in external appearance iu 

 different localities, it is prolmble that in structure it is everywhere 

 essentially the same. Only two writers have given a detailed descrip 

 tion of the frame of a kaiak, and these are from widely distant localities, 

 Ig lulik and western Greenland, both still more widely distant from 

 Point Barrow, and yet both give essentially the same component parts 

 as are to be found at Point Barrow, namely, two comparatively stout 

 gunwales running from stem to stern, braced with transverse deck- 

 beams, 1 seven streaks running tore and aft along the bottom, knees, or 

 ribs in the form ofhoops, and a hoop for the coaming, bound together 

 with whalebone or sinew. 2 



FIG. y41. Model kaiak anil puddle. 



The double-bladed paddle is almost exclusively an Eskimo contri 

 vance. The only other hyperborean race, besides the Aleuts, who use it ? 

 are the Yukagirs, who employ it in their narrow dugout canoes on the 

 River Kolyma in Siberia. 3 Double-bladed paddles have also been ob 

 served in the Malay Archipelago. 



Fig. 341, (No. 5&amp;lt;)501 [224] from Utkiavwin) is a very neatly made 

 model of a kaiak, 13-3 inches long. It is quite accurate in all its de 

 tails, but lias only five streaks on the bottom, and its width and depth 

 are about twice what they should be in proportion to the length. The 

 frame is lashed together with fine sinew and covered with seal en- 

 trail. The paddle is also out of proportion. Many similar neatly fin- 



1 Since the above was written Boas has published a detailed description of the central kaiaks. in 

 which lie says there are only four streaks besides the keel (Central Eskimo, p. 486) ^v- 



a l)r. Kane s description, though the best that we have of the flat-bottomed Greenland kaiak and ac 

 companied by diagrams, is unfortunately vague in some important respects. It is in brief as follows: 

 &quot;The skeleton consists nf thive longitudinal strips of &quot;wood on each side * * stretching from end 

 to end. * * The upper of these, the gunwale ; * is somewhat stouter than the others. The 



liottom is framed by three similar longitudinal strips. These are crossed by other strips or hoops, 

 which perform the office of knees and ribs. They are placed at a distance of not more than 8 to 10 

 inches from one jinother. Wherever the parts of this framework meet or cross they are bound together 

 with reindeer tendon very artistically. The^aA or manhole * has a rim or lip secured 



upon the gunwale and rising a couple of inches above the deck.&quot; (First Grinnell Exp.. p. 477.) It will 

 be seen that he does not mention any deck beams, which would be very necessary to keep the gunwales 

 spread apart. They are shown, however, in Crautz s crude section of a kaiak frame. (History of 

 Greenland, vol. 1, pi. vii), and are evidently mortised into the gunwale, as at Point Harrow. Crantx 

 also (op. cit., p. 1 .&quot;)()) speaks of the use of whalebone for fastening the frame together. 



Oapt. Lyon s description of the round-bottomed kaiak used at Fury and Hecla Straits (Journal, p. 2IW) 

 is much more explicit. He describee the frame as consisting of a gunwale on each side 4 or 5 inches 

 wide in the middle and three-fourths inch thick, tapering at each end, sixty-tour hoop-shaped ribs (on 

 a cauoe 25 feet long), seven slight rods outside of the ribs, twenty-two deck-beams, and a batten run 

 ning fore and aft, and a hoop round the cockpit. These large kaiaks weigh f&amp;gt;0 or 60 pounds. There is 

 a very good figure of the Point Barrow kaiak. paddled with a single puddle, in Smyth s view of Xuwftk 

 (lieeehey s Voyage, pi. opposite p. 307). 



3 \Vraiigell. Narrative of an Expedition, etc., p. 161, footnote. 



