Ethnological Sketch of the Angmagsalik Eskimo. 43 



to the bilge-streaks. The side streak to which the skin covering is 

 lashed passes through holes drilled in the ribs. The framework is 

 covered with bearded-seal skin, specially prepared for the purpose. 

 When the blubber has been removed from the skin, the latter is 

 rolled up and preserved till the hair and the grain are loosed. The 

 grain and hair are then removed, and the fat is scraped off the 

 other side of the skin with a shell or a sharp stone. The skin is 

 then dried. When the boat is to be covered , the skins are 

 thoroughly moistened in brine, and sewn together with plaited sinew 

 thread in two seams. The covering when soaked through is stretched 

 as tight as possible over the frame with the aid of rawhide cords, 

 so that when dry, it is as tight as a drum skin. After this the 

 covering is smeared again and again with boiling train-oil, until 

 the skin can absorb no more oil , so that the oil at last covers the 

 whole like a layer of varnish. After having been in constant use 

 for several days, the covering becomes water-soaked, and the boat 

 must then lie on land one day with the bottom upwards, in order 

 to dry. — An 'umiak cleaner' consists of a piece of a bear's jaw, 

 with the tooth adhering, at the other end of which a bear's claw is 

 fixed (fig. 83). With this implement the covered umiak is cleaned 

 along the keelson and the floor timbers. 



The boats are rowed by women, but are generally steered by 

 a man. The dimensions of a large umiak are : 



Length 261/2 feet 



Breadth at the bottom 2З/4 — 



— — top 442 — 



Height 2Ч4 — 



The skin covering of an umiak of this size consists of seven 

 bearded-seal or Greenland-seal skins. Several boats are so small 

 that only five skins are used for the covering. The natives use 

 very short, broad-bladed oars. In rowing, they are held in place 

 on the gunwale of the boat with seal-thong loops. As a general 

 rule two persons row on the same thwart. The oars are lifted 

 high up in the air, and the natives take very short rapid strokes. 

 It is not uncommon to have only two Avomen rowers to one umiak. 

 The steering oar has a long slender blade and is held freely in the 

 hands, almost perpendicular, being merely rested against the gunwale 

 of the boat. Sails are not known. 



The umiaks are used for the natives to travel about in in 

 summer with all their property. 



In a skin boat like this, which is often overfilled with women, 

 children, dogs, tents, blubber bags, skins, goods and chattels, and 



