85 



rock-shelters. 1 liavo elsewhere treated this part of the subject in extcnso, 

 and Avill pass it by here with the foregoing allusion. There can be no 

 doubt also that, by the insertion of feathers, hair, and whisker-bristles 

 of the seal, as well as in other ways, the bidarka or kayak was tastefully 

 ornamented. The double or two-holed bidarka, peculiar to the Innuit of 

 Kadiak and the Aleuts, became a necessity from their method of hunting, 

 which necessitated two persons, one to hurl the dart and the other to steer 

 and manage the bidarka. The single kayak, common to all the Innuit, is 

 comparatively inefficient in sea -otter hunting. The three-holed bidarka 

 appears to have been a Russian innovation. The bidarra, or umiak, does 

 not seem to have been as extensively used among the Aleuts as it is among 

 the ordinary Innuit ; and it is noteworthy that on the Avhole west coast it 

 has not the sjiecial character of a "woman's boat", which is characteristic of 

 it among the Greenlanders and eastern Innuit. 



There are some articles used on the kyak which are usually made of 

 bone, and often preserved in the upper Mammalian stratum, and upon 

 which some attempts at ornamentation were bestowed. These are little 

 pieces of bone or ivory, in general shape resembling a kneeling figure, 

 with one or two holes, through which cords were passed. These cords 

 were made fast at the outer angles of the kyak, passing over the 

 upper ridge of it, and drawn taut. On each side, one of the bone append- 

 ages w^as placed, to raise the cord a little, so that a paddle or dart might 

 be slipped under the latter, and so made fast to the kyak. There are 

 usually at least two of these transverse cords placed in advance of 

 each seat and two behind the stem seat, making six in all, in a double 

 kyak, and requiring twelve appendages. The latter were, in some cases, 

 carved to represent figures of animals. Another species of ornamentation 

 has already been alluded to in the flat, thin strips of bone which were 

 fastened to the wooden visor woi-n in hunting. These w^ere frequently 

 ornamented with typically Innuit patterns of parallel lines, dots, concen- 

 tric circles, with zigzag markings betAveen them, and radiating lines. All 

 these were in black on the white basis of the bone or ivory. These bone 

 ornaments also served the pitrpose of strengthening the visor against a blow. 

 At the tip, there was usually suspended a small bone carving, bead, or figure. 



