THE ESKIMOS. 141 



I readily frayed out into fine fibres, in which condition it 

 is used for fine needle-work ; but when coarser thread 

 or stout cord is required, these individual fibres are 

 plaited together, with wonderful neatness and rapidity. 

 One woman can make fifty or sixty yards of this cord 

 or thread in a day. 



With the Eskimos all joints, of whatever kind, are 

 secured by these thongs, they having no nails or screws 

 to supply their place. In making a komitick, the cross- 

 slats are all secured to the runners by seal thongs. In 

 framing a kyack the numerous pieces are lashed together, 



ESKIMO KYACK. 



usually with seal or deer-skin, though sometimes, and 

 preferably, with whalebone. 



The Eskimo kyack or canoe consists of a light frame 

 neatly made from all sorts of scrap-wood, and strongly 

 jointed together in the way just described. The frame 

 having been completed, it is then covered with green 

 skins, either of. seal or deer, dressed, with the hair 

 removed. The skins are joined to each other as they 

 are put on by double water-tight seams, and are drawn 

 tightly over the frame, so that when they dry they 

 become very hard and as tight as a drum-head. 



A full-sized kyack thus made is about twenty-two 

 feet long, a foot and a half wide, and a foot deep. It is 

 completely covered over on the top, excepting the small 

 hole where the paddler sits, so that though an extremely 



