BOAS] SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 361 
differences in the grasses and barks chosen for imbricating, but 
on the whole Phragmites phragmites and cherry bark are in most 
general use. 
Coiling is the prevailing technique of the entire region. The 
larger baskets are all coiled, and on account of their number and 
constant requisition in the household are very conspicuous. There 
are, however, other kinds of technique employed. The Thompson, 
and doubtless most of the other tribes, plait mats of rushes and twine 
caps and bags from spruce root. The direction of coiling for all 
tribes is anticlockwise, except in the case of left-handed workers, 
who have produced a number of specimens now in museum collec- 
tions. In essentials the technique of coiling is the same with all 
the tribes. There are local and even individual variations in the 
types of bottoms manufactured and in the size of coil used. There 
are also slight differences in stitching, for some tribes employ furca- 
tion to a considerable extent while with others it is only a matter of 
accident and scarcely noticeable except on the wrong side of the 
work. The technique of beading and that of imbrication are iden- 
tical everywhere. From available data it appears that the great 
center of the coiled basketry industry lay formerly and stillis located 
in the Cascade region of British Columbia, where it seems also that 
imbrication had its beginning, whence it spread in al] directions. 
At some early time round baskets not unlike the present forms 
produced by the Klickitat were the prevailing types over the whole 
area and were used for transporting burdens on the backs of men or 
horses as well asfor kettles and tubs. In the course of time, how- 
ever, a change occurred. Whether the idea came from the coast where 
square wooden boxes were made or was evolved in the immediate 
region as a result of remedying what proved to be a faulty form when 
used for transportation on horseback, is not clear. But at least in 
the Thompson and Lillooet localities the baskets gradually became 
more oval, finally leading to the present-day types, the Thompson 
still oval with corners clearly discernible in the upper portion of the 
structure, the Lillooet decidedly rectangular from base to rim. The 
Chilcotin have long produced an oval form which is narrow in pro- 
portion to its length. A number of their new specimens are quite 
angular. The Shuswap also adopted an elongated type. The Klicki- 
tat, however, have never modified their old round shapes, and in 
many other particulars show that they have been subject quite as 
much to influences from other directions as from the Salish area. 
Considering their location and history, this may well have been 
expected. Although they practice imbrication, it is true, their work 
is coarser than that of the other tribes. They are masters in mak- 
ing twined bags, a technique which is undoubtedly older with them 
than imbrication. They finish their basket rims with the same braid 
