

Inventions for procuring 

 the necessary means of subsistence. 



Of the contrivances here in question THE KAYAK WITH ITS 

 APPERTENANT IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS no doubt occupies the 

 first rank. The Inland Eskimo of Alaska like his Indian neighbours 

 carries on his fishery in the rivers by means of his BIRCHBARK 

 CANOE. In settling at the river-mouth he has exchanged the 

 birchbark for sealskin to cover the wooden framework of his 

 skiff and at the same time furnish it with a deck to protect it 

 against the waves of the sea. This is simply the origin of the 

 kayak, but only in its first stage of development. The deck 

 alone thus procured was not sufficient; the sea washing over it 

 would soon fill the kayak through the hole, in which its occup- 

 ant is sitting, if his clothing did not at the same time close 

 the opening around him. This ADAPTATION OF THE CLOTHING is 

 tried by degrees in various ways throughout the Eskimo count- 

 ries, but it does not attain its perfection except in Greenland 

 where it forms in connection with the kayak itself a watertight 

 cover for the whole body excepting the face. Only in that 

 country it enables the kayaker to be capsized or so to speak 

 being rolled unhurt by the waves, while in Alaska it serves as 

 much to protect him against rain as against the sea. 



The second necessary implement, THE DOUBLE-BLADED PADDLE 

 of which the middle part makes the handle, in the same way 

 makes its appearance very gradually. In Southern Alaska it 

 is unknown among the Eskimo proper who have continued to 

 use the onebladed Indian canoe paddle; it is not until we are 

 north of the Yukon river that we find the first specimens of it, 

 but still accompanied by the other, even on the same kayak. 

 At Point Barrow the onebladed paddle still serves for ordinary 



