MURDOCH. ] KAIAKS. 333 
been figured and described by many authors. It is quite as light and 
sharp as the Point Barrow model, but has a flat floor, the bilge being 
angular instead of rounded, and it has considerably more sheer to the 
deck, the stem and stern being prolonged into long curved points, which 
project above the water, and are often shod with bone or ivory. The 
coaming of the cockpit also is level, or only slightly raised forward. 
The kaiaks used in Baffin Land, Hudson Straits, and Labrador are of 
a very similar model, but larger and heavier, having the projecting 
points at the bow and stern rather shorter and less sharp, and the 
coaming of the cockpit somewhat more raised forward. Both of these 
forms are represented by specimens and numerous models in the museum 
collections. I have seen one flat-floored kaiak at Point Barrow. It 
belonged to a youth and was very narrow and light. 
The kaiak in use at Fury and Hecla Straits, as described by Capt. 
Lyon! and Capt. Parry® is of a somewhat different model, approaching 
that used at the Anderson River. It is alarge kaiak 25 feet long, with 
the bow and stern sharp and considerably more bent up than in the 
Greenland kaiaks, but round-bottomed, like the western kaiaks. The 
deck is flat, with the cockpit coaming somewhat raised forward.’ 
In the kaiaks used at the Anderson and Mackenzie rivers, as shown 
by the models in the National Museum, the bending up of the stem and 
stern posts is carried to an extreme, so that they make an angle of 
about 130° with the level of the deck. The bottom is round and the 
cockpit nearly level, but sufficient room for the knees and feet is obtained 
by arching not only the deck beams just forward of the cockpit, but all 
of them from stem to stern, so that the deck slopes away to each side 
like the roof of a house. At Point Barrow, as already described, the 
deck beams are arched only just forward of the cockpit, and the stem 
and stern are not prolonged. This appears to be the prevailing form 
of canoe at least as far south as Kotzebue Sound and is sometimes used 
by the Malemiut of Norton Sound. At Port Clarence the heavy, large 
kaiak, so common from Norton Sound southward, appears to be in use 
from Nordenskiéld’s description, as he speaks of the kaiaks holding two 
persons, sitting back to back in the cockpit.t| The kaiaks of the south- 
western Eskimo are, as far as I have been able to learn, large and 
heavy, with level coamings, with the deck quite steeply arched fore and 
aft, and with bow and stern usually of some peculiar shape, as shown 
by models in the Museum. See also Dall’s figure (Alaska, p. 15.)° 
‘Journal, p. 233. 
?Second voyage, p. 506, and pls. opposite pp. 274 and 508. 
3There is quite a discrepancy in regard to this between Capt. Lyon's description referred to above 
and the two platesdrawn by himin Parry’s second voyage. In his journal he speaks of the coaming of 
the cockpit being about 9 inches higher forward than it is aft, while from his figures the difference 
does not appear to be more than 3 or 4 inches. 
4 Vega, vol. 2, p. 228. 
5T have confined myself in the above comparison simply to the kaiaks used by undoubted Eskimo. 
I find merely casual references to the kaiaks used on the Siberian coast by the Asiatic Eskimo and 
their companions the Sedentary Chuckchis, while a discussion of the canoes of the Aleuts would carry 
me beyond the limits of the present work. 
