164 COILED BASKETRY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA [ETH. ANN 41 
No. 3 said that her fellow workers thought she made very rigid 
coils, although she believed they were no larger than the average. 
She was in the habit of pulling her stitches very tight and possibly 
she wet the material oftener than others, but she was not sure of this. 
She considered rigidity, even in very small baskets, to be not unde- 
sirable, notwithstanding the opinions of her friends, and could see no 
advantage in flexibility. No. 9 was often criticized for the same trait 
as No. 3, but she did not attempt to justify herself, merely remarking 
that she always had made baskets in this manner and did not think 
that she could do any differently. She did not seem clear as to why 
her work had this character, but thought perhaps her coils were a 
little too thick, and was of the opinion that thin walls were a necessary 
factor in flexibility. 
Bottoms of spiral coil, when intended for rectangular baskets, are 
given the required shape by the introduction of a few short, fine, 
extra splints into the foundation at each round, where corners are 
desired. Thus the oval gradually assumes a rectangular form (see 
p- 173). Certain women also flatten the bunch of splints at these 
places by pressing it down and out with their fingers or pinching 
it out as they sew. ‘This assists the widening process and prevents 
lumps. 
About 50 baskets of various kinds were examined with the aid of 
several basket makers in order to obtain the consensus of their opin- 
ions regarding the proper size of the coil in relation to the kind 
and size of the basket. The following table is the result of this 
investigation: 
Kind of basket Size of basket Dieter Comments 
Mm. 
INUtSshape eee eee Smale eae e aoe 5-6 | About right. 
IDOwse sae ee eS Ko sr ae Se 7-8 | Unnecessarily thick. 
Do--o ees largess. a svese 6-7 | About right. 
Dost Be 6 ieee (0 Koes Ses eh 8 | Unnecessarily thick. 
Barrel shape------ Smalls 22 eee 6 | About right. 
Dost 2ee420 Large: Jt). 222540 6 Do. 
NB Yo\s gs Syees Se seers = dolbuitens ss 5-6 | Right but considered by 
some to be rather too fine. 
@upsastee2 ae [Sa ce en Ss 5 | Very good; 6 mm. consid- 
ered as right by some. 
Biwi epee ee ee IASI AE ue = ae cree 5-6 | Right (no small bowls had 
| coils over 6 mm.). 
Dott 1200 42 Medium large_-_--- 6-7 | About right. 
Dose ees 2 ale Sates Okol SEE ben st ee 3s 5-6 | Right. 
: 1 Do a eas eel oer enes © dose 3: 5425224 8-9 | Too thick. 
Large boiler size_-__| eee, see ee 8 | Good. 
1 For the names of the shapes see pp. 197 et seq. 
