362 COILED BASKETRY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA [ETH. ANN. 41 
stitch so common among the Ute and other Shoshoni, who were their 
neighbors, and make frequent use of the looped coil, which has only 
comparatively recently been adopted by the Thompson for finishing 
the rims of fancy baskets not intended for hard use. 
The burden baskets of the Thompson and Lillooet, while differing 
from each other quite noticeably in shape, and among themselves 
in size,show aremarkableconformity to local standards of proportion. 
While the people are not able to formulate their ideas on proper pro- 
portions with entire unanimity of opinion, an objective study shows 
that there is a set of fairly constant proportions followed among the 
Thompson and another among the Lillooet. 
Thompson burden baskets are about three-fourths as wide as 
they are long, while the height is about equal to the width of the 
mouth, or a little less. The area of the bottom is about one-fourth 
that of the mouth, although more variation exists here than in any 
other part of the structure. 
Lillooet baskets are more nearly square at the mouth, the width be- 
ing a little more than three-fourths of the length. The height, too, is 
usually less than the width of the mouth by at least 10 per cent. The 
bottoms are of two kinds, of which one is wider than the other, and 
the whole shape is decidedly rectangular, with a very small base and 
flaring mouth, accentuated by straight rather than by incurving 
walls which the Thompson employ. 
The baskets are ornamented solely by means of beading or imbri- 
cation. So many and varied are the styles of decoration, so unmis- 
takably are they allied with types of art which appear conspicuously 
in all the surrounding regions through the medium of entirely different 
forms of weaving or even outside of the textile industry, so unique 
and peculiar is imbrication and so singular has the history of its devel- 
opment evidently been, that the student is irresistibly led to endeavor 
to reconstruct if possible from the scattered threads discernible here 
and there the rich fabric of its story and the art which through its 
means has for many years flourished almost like a desert bloom in 
the far-away valleys of the northern Cascade Range. 
We have seen that the earliest birch-bark baskets of the Shuswap ® 
were ornamented on the rim by strips of beading. These ran over 
and under the stitches of varying lengths which bound the bark to 
the rod of the rim and formed simple yet effective patterns. The 
birch-bark baskets of other regions were decorated in a similar fashion, 
as early collections show. Along the Skeena River, where imbrica- 
tion was not used, in addition to the bark technique the people plaited 
baskets of narrow strips of cedar bark and also made twined bags.” 
In order to create designs in the latter two weaves they used overlay 
60 J. A. Teit, The Shuswap, op. cit., pp. 202 et seq. 
6 This according to Teit. I have seen no specimens of this kind.—F. B. 
