MURDOCH. ] UMIAKS. 343 
of the present day. The latter are evidently only copies of the jaw- 
bone crotch in a material susceptible of a higher finish than the coarse 
bone. The only reason for making them in two pieces is that it is im- 
possible to get a single piece of walrus ivory large enough for a whole 
one. It seems to me highly probable that the crotch was suggested by 
the natural shape of the walrus jaw, since these are frequently used for 
crotches to receive the cross pieces of the cache frames. Perhaps, for 
a while, the whole jaw was simply lashed to the bow of the boat. The 
next step would obviously be to cut out the shank and reduce the weight 
of the crotch by trimming off the superfluous material. The reason for 
making the crotch of ivory is perhaps purely esthetic; but more likely 
connected with the notions already referred to which lead them to clean 
up their boats and gear and adorn themselves and paint their faces 
when they go to the whale fishery. 
Although, as I have already stated, there appears to be no essential 
difference in the general plan of the frame of the Greenland umiaks 
and those used at Point Barrow, there seems to be considerable differ- 
ence in the size and outward appearance. As well as can be judged 
from the brief descriptions and rude figures of various authors! and 
various models in the National Museum (the correctness of which, how- 
ever, I can not be sure of, without having seen the originals) the umiak 
not only in Greenland, but among the Eskimo generally as far west as 
the Mackenzie, is a much more wall sided square ended boat than at 
Point Barrow, having less sheer to the gunwales with the stem and 
stern-post nearly vertical.” Mr. L. M. Turner informs me that this is the 
ease at Ungava Bay. Itwasalsoalargerboat. Egedesaysthatthey “are 
large and open * * * some of them 20 yards long;”* Crantz gives their 
length as “‘commonly 6, nay 8 or 9 fathoms long;”* Kumlien says that 
it required ‘about fifteen skins of Phoca barbata” to cover an umiak 
at Cumberland Gulf,? and Mr. Turner informs me that eight are used 
at Ungava. Capt. Parry found no umiaks at Fury and Heecla straits® 
and Kumlien says that they are becoming rare at Cumberland Gulf. The 
so-called Arctic Highlanders of Smith Sound have no boats of any kind. 
The model used at Point Barrow probably prevails as far south as 
Kotzebue Sound. The boats that boarded us off Wainwright Inlet in 
the autumn of 1583, and those of the Nunatatmiun who visited Point 
Barrow, seemed not to differ from those with which we were familiar, 
except that the latter were rather light and low sided, nor do I remember 
anything peculiar about the boats which we saw at Plover Bay in 
1881. 
1 Compare for instance Kane’s figure 1st Grinnell Exp. p. 422, and Lyon, Journal, p. 30. 
2See Beechey Voyage, p. 252. In describing the umiaks at Hotham Inlet he says: ‘t The model differs 
from that of the umiak of the Hudson Bay in being sharp at both ends.’ Smyth gives a good figure 
of the Hotham Inlet craft in the plate opposite p. 250. 
3 Greenland, p. 111. - 
4 Vol. 1, p. 148. 
5 Contributions, p. 43. Boas, however, says three to five skins. (Central E. kimo, p. 528.) 
62d Voy., p. 507 
