Boas] STRUCTURE OF BASKETS 167 
material was involved. Her other reason is more intelligible, namely, 
that she wished to ornament her coils with a beading which ran under 
and over the wrapping stitches and which was composed of wide 
strips of bark, necessitating a wide, flat coil surface. She used rather 
coarse splints for padding so as to make the walls thicker and stronger. 
The finest specimens of workmanship show about four or five 
stitches and three coils to the centimeter. On most baskets of mod- 
ern make there are about three stitches and two coils to the centi- 
meter, but a few of the best examples of fine work have four stitches 
and two coils to the centimeter. 
STRUCTURE OF BASKETS 
Although long ago the baskets were confined to a few simple round 
shapes, at present forms of great variety are produced. 
Ordinarily the world over coiled baskets have rounded forms. 
Within the last few generations, however, in this area, a remarkable 
development of elongated shapes with rounded corners has arisen. 
Later these became more and more angular until a type of basket 
was produced which resembles an inverted truncated pyramid of 
rectangular cross section. Many of these later types are evidently 
copies of utensils and receptacles of foreign origin. Their reproduc- 
tion in this kind of basketry technique calls for no small amount of 
ingenuity and skill, even were the basket undecorated. It leads to 
still more complicated processes when the ornamentation in woven 
designs is taken into consideration. 
Co1LepD Borroms %® 
When working, the majority of the women squat on the ground or 
the floor with feet underneath the body (pl. 2), resting the basket on 
the lap, although occasionally they sit with feet extended in front 
when tired. Others do this habitually, holding the basket on the lap 
or knees. The position is not fixed, but altered from one pose to the 
other as the worker chooses. Those who have adopted the white 
man’s habits often sit on chairs, resting their work on a low table. 
When making a large basket, informant 25 lets it rest on the ground, 
while she sits on a low seat. 
In the discussion on structure it seems best to begin with the 
bottom, since a basket is always started at the bottom and the shape 
of the base determines the cross section of the basket. There are 
two general types, the coiled and the slat bottoms. No checkerwork 
bottoms have ever been woven by the Thompson. There are several 
varieties of the former type which are classified according to the 
16 For other discussions see C. Hill-Tout, The Nativo Races of the British Empire, British North 
America, I, p. 114; and O. T. Mason, pp. 435 and 436, pls. 68, 163. 
53666°—28——12 
