178 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 192 



Two small fragments of birch (?) bark, one of which had been folded 

 twice, were found in House 8, Old Town II. No birch grows in the 

 Yakutat area, but birchbark baskets fuU of soapberries were sometimes 

 traded from the Southern Tutchone at the head of the Alsek River. 

 Both berries and baskets were considered a novelty at Yakutat. 



Two pieces of spruce (?) bark were found on or near the floor of 

 House 9 in Old Town III. They may have been part of the roof, or 

 of some big container such as the large sheets of spruce bark which 

 were set on posts above the fire as pans in which to cook berries for 

 storage. 



CORDAGE, BASKETS, AND TEXTILES 



CORDAGE 



There are seven carbonized pieces of two-ply Z-twist cords, from 

 2 to 8 mm. in diameter, probably made of spruce root. Six were on 

 the floor of the Storage House, as was a Imotted length of spruce 

 root (?), and the seventh was from the fill of House 8. 



Examples of two-ply S-twist sinew (?) thread or string, about 0.5 

 mm. in diameter, were preserved on the stem of an arrowhead from 

 Old Town II (pi. 14, b) and on two copper hooks from Old Town III 

 (fig. 18, i). 



Informants mentioned heavier ropes or cords of spruce roots, ropes 

 of untanned seal and sea lion hide, fishing lines of kelp, and braided 

 square sennit cords of porpoise sinew for bowstrings and harpoon 

 hnes. Thread of porpoise sinew was used for sewing garments. 



TWINED BASKETS 



Carbonized fragments of several fine, twined spruce root baskets (pi. 

 18, a) were found on or just above the floor of the Storage House in 

 Old Town II. The direction of twining is downward from left to 

 right; the fragments vary from about 6 warps and 8 wefts per square 

 centimeter to 9 warps and 10 or 11 wefts. Salmonberry seeds were 

 found with one of the coarser baskets, suggesting that it had been 

 used to gather or store berries. The finer baskets were decorated 

 with false embroidery, a technique in which the northern Tlingit 

 excel (Mason, 1904, pp. 308 flf.). "The Yakutat have always held 

 first place in basketry," and legend credits them with the origin of 

 this art (Emmons, 1903, pp. 229-231). Yakutat women claim that 

 their baskets were superior because they held the weft strands tight 

 with their teeth while weaving, whereas other Tlingit women used only 

 their fingers (sic) . 



Baskets of a variety of shapes and weaves were formerly made. 

 Those designed to hold liquids were soaked and then rubbed on the 



