Boas] APPLICATION OF DESIGN TO FIELD 263 
obvious and easy, dividing the circumference of the bottom into a 
given number of sections for ends and sides, at which points stripes or 
figures are to be started. It will be remembered that the horizontal 
beaded lines were the common type of decoration on old baskets (Lil- 
looet, pls. 18, c; 55,9). But these have long since given way to more 
complicated horizontal bands which in their complexity rival the 
vertical stripes. 
Practically all the types of decoration used in this area present some 
undesirable difficulties in the way of their successful execution. The 
diagonal all-over arrangements of small figures are perhaps the only 
exceptions, since a little more latitude in selection of stitches may be 
assumed without very noticeable bad effects and the very number of 
the figures conceals the errors more successfully. Yet diagonal 
patterns of this type are used on far less than half of the baskets and 
on the other hand a large percentage of the patterns on more recent 
baskets consist of vertical stripes or vertical series. 
The women are well acquainted with the difficulties of their work. 
The specimens illustrate many devices intended to overcome faults, 
but the basket makers have not worked out any well-defined and 
generally accepted system for disposing of difficulties, except that of 
the use of the fillers for bare corners. Even here a great amount 
of latitude prevails, so that while fillers are sanctioned there is 
almost no common feature which characterizes them. For some 
reason the circumference spacing in the placing of designs seems 
a particularly difficult problem for the Thompson women. Of course 
there are individuals who accomplish it very easily but most of them 
seem to have their greatest trouble here, which is due not entirely, 
howeyer, to incorrect divisions in the beginning, but rather to the 
premature turning of the coil at the corner, which becomes more 
accentuated as the basket is built up and which makes the trapezoidal 
field askew, and not at all conforming to the shape of the bottom. 
All divisions of the circumference are made by eye or only very 
roughly with a splint, and slight inaccuracies at the bottom of the 
wall become more apparent as the work proceeds. 
Tue HorizontaL BAND 
The horizontal band is more easily handled, although, if it consists 
of a row of smaller figures, there is always the problem of spacing them 
and avoiding a too small or too large unit where the circle is completed, 
as well as of affording a satisfactory solution of the jump. If the 
horizontal band is wide, difficulties arise on account of the greater 
circumference of the upper edge, as compared with that of the lower. 
This incompatibility of upper and lower edges must often be dealt 
with entirely in the region of the corners of the basket because a 
53666°—28——18 
