THE ESKIMOS 



place. In making a komitick the cross slats are all secured 

 to the runners by seal thongs. In framing a kyack the 

 numerous pieces are lashed together, usually with seal or 

 •deerskin, though sometimes, and preferably, with whalebone. 

 The Eskimo kyack, or canoe, consists of a light frame 

 neatly made from all sorts of scrap-wood, and strongly jointed 

 together in the way just described. The frame having been 

 «ompleted, it is then covered with green skins, either of seal 



ESKIMO KYACKS. 



■or deer, dressed, with the hair removed. The skins are joined 

 to each other as they are put on by double water-tight seams, 

 and are drawn tightly over the frame, so that when they dry 

 they become very hard, and as tight as a drum-head. 



A full-size kyack thus made is about twenty-two feet long, 

 a foot and a half wide, and a foot deep. It is completely 

 covered over on the top, excepting the small hole where the 

 paddler sits, so that though an extremely cranky craft in the 

 lands of a novice, it is used in perfect safety, even in very 



135 



