178 COILED BASKETRY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA [eTH. ANN. 41 
splint as it binds the coil to the bottom, and this so spreads them that 
the bare ends are almost concealed. The regularity of the stitches 
imparts quite an ornamental effect which the women strive to obtain, 
but if the work is done inaccurately it appears as an unavoidable 
blemish. 
Two other methods of stitching the ends of slats are in vogue. 
In one the slat is perforated in the center by means of an awl about 2.5 
em.from the end. (Fig. 11,d.) Otherwise the result is the same as in 
the former method, when only one line is carried across the ends. _ 
In the third the encircling coil is sewed to the ends of the slats by 
one or more stitches taken eyery time that the space between the 
coils is reached. These pass through the binding quite a distance 
away from the ends for the purpose of ornamentation as much as 
of securing the coil. (Fig. 11, e,f.) Plate 6, b, ¢, show these methods 
on beautifully constructed bottoms. Ff 
As a rule slat bottoms of the second and third types which are 
made separately from the basket have several rows of coils built 
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Fic. 11.—Methods of making slat bottoms 
around them before the side walls are started. Very angular shapes 
which have a ‘“‘foot”’ to keep the bottom from resting on the floor form 
an exception to this. Either face may become the outside, so during 
its construction the worker turns it to suit her convenience, but the 
direction of the sewing is always toward the right. 
The women give two reasons for adding the encircling coils. The 
first is that they consider a sharp turn from bottom to walls to be 
bad artistically; in fact, absurd for burden baskets. In some Lillooet 
examples of this shape it is said that only about two-thirds of the 
entire bottom is made of slats, the rest being of coils which in curved 
alignment connect the plane of the base with that of the sides. 
When the Thompson use slat walls they experience great difficulty 
in securing the proper, gradual rounding between the two parts of 
the basket and always employ coils at the curve. 
The second reason given is that starting the sides with such a 
sharp angle would create an edge between the bottom and the walls 
which would soon be worn, because when the basket is handled and 
knocked about the point of wear would always be along the same 
