THE ESKIMOS. 141 
readily frayed out into fine fibres, in which condition it 
is used for fine needle-work ; but when coarser thread 
or stout cord is required, these individual fibres are 
plaited together, with wonderful neatness and rapidity. 
One woman can make fifty or sixty yards of this cord 
or thread in a day. 
With the Eskimos all joints, of whatever kind, are 
secured by these thongs, they having no nails or screws 
to supply their 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, 
ESKIMO KYACK. 
usually with seal or deer-skin, 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 completed, it is then covered with green 
skins, either of seal 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-sized 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 
