BOAS] STRUCTURE OF BASKETS 177 
the stitching around a new slat interlocking with that of the previous 
one (fig. 10, d). If the slats are very thin and pliable, and green or 
well soaked, the holes for the sewing splint are sometimes made in 
the edges as well. 
The work is often begun at one side, instead of in the center, and 
the bottom built straight across; hence it consists as often of an 
even as of an uneven number of slats. However, it is said that it 
may just as well be started in the middle, and that in such a case 
there is less tendency to warp. The first type may be begun from the 
side if desired, which would bring the wrapped slat to the edge, but 
this is not usually done. In sewing slats together at one end, the 
opposite ends tend to fly apart; therefore they are lashed together 
at their far ends until nearly sewed down, when the binding is removed, 
(Fig. 10, ¢.) 
The distinguishing feature of the third type is the twining by 
which the slats are held to each other, a woof splint passing over one 
and under one in the manner shown in Figure 10, e. This kind of 
bottom is quite unpopular, although there are Thompson and Lillooet 
women who occasionally make it. As none of the informants who 
were interviewed knew the mode of procedure involved in its manu- 
facture, detailed information was not obtained, but two reasons were 
given for its infrequent appearance, namely, that it is apt to warp 
and that the slats are liable to drop out of line. The Thompson are 
said to have acquired the idea from the Lillooet. Farther to the 
east the use of slat bottoms is entirely unknown. 
The bottoms of the second and third types are always made 
separately from the rest of the basket. In these all the ends of the 
slats are bare and the first encircling coil is often thicker than those 
which follow, because the ends must be completely embedded in it 
and the perforations in them through which the sewing splint goes 
are placed farther away from the end to avoid splitting the wood. 
On some bottoms, before the surrounding coil is added, the ends 
of the slats are sewed together, by starting in the space between the 
slats, about 1 to 2 cm. in from the end. (Fig. 11, a.) The splint is 
drawn through from front to back, whence it passes up over the end 
of the slat, crossing it at its center, and obliquely down to the right 
on the front side, to a similar point in the next interslat space, where 
it is again drawn through to the wrong side. Thus the process con- 
tinues. When the opposite corner is reached, it is sometimes brought 
back across the bottom again in the same way, so that the stitches 
cross each other in the middle of each slat and the effect is that of a 
zigzag. (Fig. 11, 6.) When two splints are used each way, then the 
four intersections at the end of the slat form a series of triangles. 
(Fig. 11, ¢.) If the surrounding coil is not thick enough to hide the 
slats completely, these crossing stitches are often split by the sewing 
