336 



THE POINT BARBOW ESKIMO. 



A .stout square timber, of perhaps 3 inches scantling, runs along the 

 middle of the bottom forming a keel or keelson. This of necessity is 

 usually made of several pieces of wood scarfed together and fastened 

 with treenails and whalebone lashings. At each end it is fastened in the 

 .same way to the stem and sternpost, which are both of the same shape, 

 broad and flat above or inside, but beveled off to a keel outside, and 

 curving up in a knee, at the same time tapering off to the point where 

 the bow (or stern) begins to flare. Here it is mortised into the under 

 side of a trapezoidal block of wood, widest and thickest on the inboard 

 end, and concaved off on the under face, to a thin edge outboard. It is 

 held on by a transverse lashing passing through holes in the end of the 

 post and the thickest part of the block. Along each side of the bottom, 

 at what would be the bilge of a round bottom boat, runs a stout streak, 



Flo. 342. Frame of umiak. 



thinner and wider than the keelson and set up edgewise. These are 

 spread apart amidships, but bent together fore and aft so as to be 

 scarfed into the stem and sternpost (see diagram, Fig. 343a). 



On the model they are fastened here with treenails, and this is prob 

 ably also the case on the large canoes. They are spread apart by 

 cross pieces or floor timbers, flat rather broad boards laid across the 

 keelson with their ends mortised into the bilge streaks. These are 

 longest amidships and decrease regularly in length fore and aft. There 

 were fifteen of them ou Nika waalu s umiak. On the model they are pegged 

 to the keelson and bilge streaks. The ribs are straight, slender, square 

 timbers, eighteen on each side(ou Xikawaalu s umiak: the canoe photo 

 graphed has fifteen). These are all of the same length, but fitted obliquely 

 to the outer edge of the bilge-streaks in such a way (see diagram, Fig. 



