ITS CONSTRUCTION. 
477 
rr 
The skeleton consists of three longitudinal strips of 
wood on each side — it would be wrong to call them 
timbers, for they are rarely thicker than a common 
plastering lath — stretching from end to end, and 
shielded at the stem and stern by cutwaters of bone. 
The upper of these, the gunwale, if I may call it so, is 
r somewhat stouter than the others. 
^ The bottom is framed by three sim- 
ilar longitudinal strips. These are 
crossed by other strips or hoops, 
which perform the office of knees and ribs : they are 
placed at a distance of not more than eight to ten 
inches from one another. Wherever the parts of this 
frame-work meet or cross, they are bound together 
with reindeer tendon very artistically. The general 
outline is, I think, given accurately in the sketch on 
the opposite page. 
Over this little basket-work of wood is stretched the 
coating of seal hides, which also covers the deck, A^ery 
neatly sewed with tendon, and firmly glued at the 
edges by a composition of reindeer horn scraped and 
liquefied in oil. A varnish made of the same mate, 
rials is used to protect the whole exterior. 
The pah, or man-hole, as we would term it, is very 
