_Kaiaks and paddles._--Like all the rest of the Eskimo race, the
natives of Point Barrow use the kaiak, or narrow, light, skin-covered
canoe, completely decked over except at the middle, where there is a
hole or cockpit in which the man sits. Although nearly every male
above the age of boyhood owns and can manage one of these canoes, they
are much less generally employed than by any other Eskimo whose habits
have been described, except the “Arctic highlanders,” who have no
boats, and perhaps those of Siberia and their Chuckche companions. The
kaiak is used only during the season of open water, and then but
little in the sea in the neighborhood of the villages. Those who
remain near the villages in the summer use the kaiak chiefly for
making the short excursions to the lakes and streams inland, already
described, after reindeer, and for making short trips from camp to
camp along the coast. At Pernyû they are used in setting the
stake-nets and also for retrieving fowl which have fallen in the water
when shot.
According to Dr. Simpson[N428] the men of the parties which go east in
the summer travel in their kaiaks after reaching the open water “to
make room in the large boat for the oil-skins.” We obtained no
information regarding this. It is at this time, probably, that the
kaiak comes specially in play for spearing molting fowl and
“flappers”, and for catching seals with the kúkiga. They manage the
kaiak with great skill and confidence, but we never knew them to go
out in rough weather, nor did we ever see the practice, so frequently
described elsewhere, of tying the skirts of the waterproof jacket
round the coaming of the cockpit so as to exclude the water.
[Footnote N428: Op. cit. p. 264.]
It should, however, be borne in mind that from the reasons above
stated our opportunities for observing the use of the kaiak were very
limited. At all events it is certain that the people depend mainly on
the umiak, not only for traveling, but for hunting and fishing as
well, which places them in strong contrast with the Greenlanders, who
are essentially a race of kaiakers and have consequently developed the
boat and its appendages to a high state of perfection.
We brought home one complete full-sized kaiak, with its paddle, No.
57773 [539], Fig. 338_a_ and _b_, which is a very fair representative
of the canoes used at Point Barrow. This is 19 feet long and 18 inches
wide amidships. The gunwales are straight, except for a very slight
sheer at the bow, and the cockpit is 21 inches long and 18½ inches
wide. It has a frame of wood, which appears to be all of spruce, held
together by treenails and whalebone lashings, and is covered with
white-tanned sealskins with the grain side out. The stoutest part of
the frame is the two gunwales, each 3¼ inches broad and ½-inch thick,
flat, and rounded off on the upper edge inside, running the whole
length of the boat and meeting at the stem and stern, gradually
tapered up on the lower edge at each end. The ribs, of which there are
at least forty-three, are bent into nearly a half-circle, thus making
a U-shaped midship section, and are ¾-inch wide by ⅓-inch thick, flat
on the outer side and round on the inner. Their ends are mortised into
the lower edge of the gunwale and fastened with wooden treenails. They
are set in about 3 inches apart and decrease gradually in size fore
and aft. Outside of these are seven equidistant streaks running fore
and aft, ¾ inch to 1 inch wide and ¼ inch thick, of which the upper on
each side reaches neither stem nor stern. These are lashed to the ribs
with a strip of whalebone, which makes a round turn about one rib,
above the streak, going under the rib first, and a similar turn round
the next rib below the streak (Fig. 339).
[Illustration: FIG. 338.--Kaiak.]
There is a stout keelson, hemi-elliptical in section, under the
cockpit only. This is 4½ feet long, about 2 inches deep, and 1½ inches
wide, and is fastened in the middle and about 1 foot from each end by
a strip of whalebone, which passes through a transverse hole in the
keelson, round the rib on one side, back through the keelson, and
round the rib on the other side twice. The end is wrapped spirally
round the turns on one side and tucked into the hole in the keelson.
The deck beams are not quite so stout as the ribs and are mortised
into the upper edge of the gunwales a little below the level of the
deck. The ends are secured by lashings or stitches of some material
which are concealed by the skin cover. They are about as far apart as
the ribs, but neither exactly correspond nor break joints with the
latter.
[Illustration: FIG. 339.--Method of fastening together frame of
kaiak.]
At the after end of the cockpit is an extra stout beam or thwart to
support the back, 1¾ inches wide and three-quarters inch thick, with
rounded edges, the ends of which are apparently lashed with thong. The
first beam forward of the cockpit is rounded, and appears to be a
natural crook forming a #U#-shaped arch, and is followed by seven
#V#-shaped knees, thickest in the middle and enlarged a little at the
ends, successively decreasing in height to the seventh, which is
almost straight. This makes the rise in the deck forward of the
cockpit.
Every alternate deck beam is braced to the gunwale at each end by an
oblique lashing of whalebone, running from a transverse hole in the
beam about 1 inch from the gunwale to a corresponding hole in the
gunwale, three-quarters inch from the lower edge. The lashing makes
three or four turns through these holes and around the lower edge of
the gunwale, and the end is wrapped spirally round these turns for
their whole length. Above these beams a narrow batten runs fore and
aft amidships from cockpit to stem and stern, mortised into the two
beams at the cockpit, and lashed to the others with whalebone. The
coaming of the cockpit is made of a single flat piece of wood, 1¾
inches broad and one-quarter inch thick, bent into a hoop with the
ends lapping about 6 inches and “sewed” together with stitches of
whalebone. Round the upper edge of this, on the outside, is fitted a
“half-round” hoop, which appears to be made of willow, three-quarters
by one-third inch, with its ends lapped about 4 inches, this lap
coming over the joint of the larger hoop. It is fastened on by short
stitches of whalebone about 5 or 6 inches apart, leaving room enough
between the two hoops to allow a lacing of fine whalebone to pass
through. The coaming is put on over the edge of the skin cover, which
is drawn up tight inside of the coaming and over its upper edge and
fastened by a lacing of whalebone, which runs spirally round the outer
hoop and through holes about one-half inch apart in the edge of the
cover.
[Illustration: FIG. 340.--Double kayak paddle. 1/12]
The coaming fits over the crown of the arch of the forward deck beam
and rests on the middle of the thwart aft, and is secured by lashings
of whalebone, which pass through holes in the coaming and over its
upper edge. The forward lashing makes three turns, which pass round
the beam with the end wrapped spirally round the parts between beam
and coaming; the after lashing, four similar turns, which pass through
a hole in the thwart and around its forward edge. On each side is a
stout vertical brace of wood 3¼ inches long, 1 inch wide, and one-half
inch thick, with rounded edges and corners. The ends are cut out
parallel to the breadth, so that one end fits on to the upper edge of
the gunwale, while the other receives the lower edge of the coaming,
protruding on the outside through a hole in the cover.
The cover is of six sealskins, put together heads to tails, so that
there is only one longitudinal seam, which runs irregularly along the
deck. The transverse seams, which run obliquely across the bottom are
double and sewed with a blind stitch, like the seams already described
on the waterproof boots, from the inside. These seams are nearly 2
inches wide. The longitudinal seam is sewed in the same way from the
outside, but not so broadly lapped, with the edge turned over into a
roll. There are two pieces of stout thong stretched across the deck,
one forward of the cockpit and the other aft, which serve to fasten
articles to the deck. The thong passes out through a hole in the
gunwale, one-half inch from the upper edge and 6 inches from the
cockpit, on the starboard side forward and on the port side aft, and
is secured by a knot in the end inboard. The other end passes in
through a corresponding hole in the other gunwale and is loosely
knotted to the deck beams, so that the line can be slackened off or
tautened up at pleasure. Three feet from the bow is a becket for
holding spears, etc., fastened into two little holes bored diagonally
outward through the edge of the gunwales. It is of two parts of seal
thong, one part twisted round the other, but is broken in the middle,
so that only one-half of it is left. The weight of this kaiak in its
present dry condition is 32 pounds.
This is about the ordinary pattern of kaiak used at Point Barrow, and
is a medium-sized one. These boats are made to fit the size of the
owner, a youth or small man using a much smaller and lighter kaiak
than a heavy adult. They are never made to carry more than one person,
and I have never heard of their being used by the women. In carrying
the kaiak across the land from lake to lake, it is held horizontally
against the side with the bow pointing forward, by thrusting the
forearm into the cockpit. We never saw them carried on the head, in
the manner practised at Fury and Hecla Straits.[N429]
[Footnote N429: Lyon, Journal, p. 233. See also Capt. Lyon’s
figure in Parry’s 2d Voy., pl. opposite p. 274.]
In entering the canoe the man takes great care to wipe his feet clean
of sand and gravel, which would work down under the timbers and chafe
the skin. The canoe is launched in shoal water, preferably alongside
of a little bank, and the man steadies it by sticking down his paddle
on the outer side and holding it with his left hand, while he balances
himself on his right foot, and with his free hand carefully wipes his
left foot. He then steps with his left foot into the kaiak, and still
balancing himself with the help of the paddle, lifts and wipes his
right foot before he steps in with that. He then pushes his feet and
legs forward under the raised deck, settles himself in a proper
position for trimming the boat, and shoves off. As elsewhere, the
kaiak is always propelled with a paddle.
No. 89246 [539], Fig. 340, is the paddle which belongs to the kaiak
just described. It is 7 feet long. The shaft joining the blades is
elliptical in section, with its greatest width at right angles to the
plane of the blades so to present the greatest resistance to the
strain of paddling. The shape of the blade, with rounded tip and thin
rounded edges is admirably adapted to give the blade a clean entry
into the water. The whole is very neatly and smoothly made, and the
blades are painted with red ocher. This is a much more effective
paddle than those used by the Greenlanders and other eastern Eskimo,
the blades of which, probably from the scarcity of wood[N430] are very
narrow, not exceeding 4 inches in width. In Greenland and Labrador,
also, the blades are square at the ends like those of ordinary oars,
and are usually edged with bone to prevent them from splitting. The
absence of this bone edging on the paddles from Point Barrow perhaps
indicates that they are meant for summer use only and not for working
among the ice. In accordance with the general custom in northwestern
America, the double-bladed paddle (páutĭñ) is used only when great
speed is desired, as in chasing game. It is handled in the usual way,
being grasped with both hands near the middle, and dipped alternately
on opposite sides. For ordinary traveling they use a single-bladed
paddle (áñun), of the same shape as those used in the umiak but
usually somewhat smaller, of which we neglected to procure a specimen.
With this they make a few strokes on one side, till the boat begins to
sheer, then shift it over and make a few strokes, on the other side.
They do this with very great skill, getting considerable speed, and
making a remarkably straight wake. The use of this single paddle
appears to be universal along the coast of Alaska, from Point Barrow
southward, and it is also used at the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers,
as shown by the models collected by MacFarlane in that region. It is,
however, unknown among the eastern Eskimo about whom we have any
definite information on the subject, namely, the Greenlanders, the
people of Baffin Land, Hudson Strait, and Labrador.[N431]
[Footnote N430: It is a curious fact, however, that the narrowest
kaiak paddles I have ever seen belonged to some Eskimo that I saw
in 1876, at Rigolette, Labrador, who lived in a region
sufficiently well wooded to furnish them with lumber for a small
schooner, which they had built.]
[Footnote N431: For information concerning the last two regions I
am indebted to Mr. L. M. Turner; for the others to the standard
authorities.]
Curiously enough the Greenlanders had a superstition of a sort of
malevolent spirits called kajariak, who were “kayakmen of an
extraordinary size, who always seem to be met with at a distance from
land beyond the usual hunting grounds. They were skilled in the arts
of sorcery, particularly in the way of raising storms and bringing bad
weather. Like the umiarissat [other fabulous beings], _they use
one-bladed paddles_, like those of the Indians.”[N432] This tradition
either refers back to a time when the ancestors of the Greenlanders
used the single paddle or to occasional and perhaps hostile meetings
between eastern and western Eskimo.
[Footnote N432: Rink, Tales and Traditions, p. 47. See also p. 374
for a story of the meeting of a Greenlander with one of these
beings.]
Though the kaiak is essentially the same wherever used, it differs
considerably in size and external appearance in different localties.
The kaiak of the Greenlanders is perhaps the best-known model, as it
has been figured and described by many authors. It is quite as light
and sharp as the Point Barrow model, but has a flat floor, the bilge
being angular instead of rounded, and it has considerably more sheer
to the deck, the stem and stern being prolonged into long curved
points, which project above the water, and are often shod with bone or
ivory. The coaming of the cockpit also is level, or only slightly
raised forward. The kaiaks used in Baffin Land, Hudson Straits, and
Labrador are of a very similar model, but larger and heavier, having
the projecting points at the bow and stern rather shorter and less
sharp, and the coaming of the cockpit somewhat more raised forward.
Both of these forms are represented by specimens and numerous models
in the museum collections. I have seen one flat-floored kaiak at Point
Barrow. It belonged to a youth and was very narrow and light.
The kaiak in use at Fury and Hecla Straits, as described by Capt.
Lyon[N433] and Capt. Parry[N434] is of a somewhat different model,
approaching that used at the Anderson River. It is a large kaiak 25
feet long, with the bow and stern sharp and considerably more bent up
than in the Greenland kaiaks, but round-bottomed, like the western
kaiaks. The deck is flat, with the cockpit coaming somewhat raised
forward.[N435]
[Footnote N433: Journal, p. 233.]
[Footnote N434: Second voyage, p. 506, and pls. opposite pp. 274
and 508.]
[Footnote N435: There is quite a discrepancy in regard to this
between Capt. Lyon’s description referred to above and the two
plates drawn by him in Parry’s second voyage. In his journal he
speaks of the coaming of the cockpit being about 9 inches higher
forward than it is aft, while from his figures the difference does
not appear to be more than 3 or 4 inches.]
In the kaiaks used at the Anderson and Mackenzie rivers, as shown by
the models in the National Museum, the bending up of the stem and
stern posts is carried to an extreme, so that they make an angle of
about 130° with the level of the deck. The bottom is round and the
cockpit nearly level, but sufficient room for the knees and feet is
obtained by arching not only the deck beams just forward of the
cockpit, but all of them from stem to stern, so that the deck slopes
away to each side like the roof of a house. At Point Barrow, as
already described, the deck beams are arched only just forward of the
cockpit, and the stem and stern are not prolonged. This appears to be
the prevailing form of canoe at least as far south as Kotzebue Sound
and is sometimes used by the Malemiut of Norton Sound. At Port
Clarence the heavy, large kaiak, so common from Norton Sound
southward, appears to be in use from Nordenskiöld’s description, as he
speaks of the kaiaks holding two persons, sitting back to back in the
cockpit.[N436] The kaiaks of the southwestern Eskimo are, as far as I
have been able to learn, large and heavy, with level coamings, with
the deck quite steeply arched fore and aft, and with bow and stern
usually of some peculiar shape, as shown by models in the Museum. See
also Dall’s figure (Alaska, p. 15.)[N437]
[Footnote N436: Vega, vol. 2, p. 228.]
[Footnote N437: I have confined myself in the above comparison
simply to the kaiaks used by undoubted Eskimo. I find merely
casual references to the kaiaks used on the Siberian coast by the
Asiatic Eskimo and their companions the Sedentary Chuckchis, while
a discussion of the canoes of the Aleuts would carry me beyond the
limits of the present work.]
While the kaiak, however, differs so much in external appearance in
different localities, it is probable that in structure it is
everywhere essentially the same. Only two writers have given a
detailed description of the frame of a kaiak, and these are from
widely distant localities, Iglulik and western Greenland, both still
more widely distant from Point Barrow, and yet both give essentially
the same component parts as are to be found at Point Barrow, namely,
two comparatively stout gunwales running from stem to stern, braced
with transverse deckbeams,[N438] seven streaks running fore and aft
along the bottom, knees, or ribs in the form of hoops, and a hoop for
the coaming, bound together with whalebone or sinew.[N439]
[Footnote N438: Since the above was written Boas has published a
detailed description of the central kaiaks, in which he says there
are only four streaks besides the keel (Central Eskimo, p. 486).]
[Footnote N439: Dr. Kane’s description, though the best that we
have of the flat-bottomed Greenland kaiak and accompanied by
diagrams, is unfortunately vague in some important respects. It is
in brief as follows: “The skeleton consists of three longitudinal
strips of wood on each side * * * stretching from end to end.
* * * The upper of these, the gunwale * * * is somewhat stouter
than the others. The bottom is framed by three similar
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 8 to 10 inches from one another.
Wherever the parts of this framework meet or cross they are bound
together with reindeer tendon very artistically. * * * The _pah_
or manhole * * * has a rim or lip secured upon the gunwale and
rising a couple of inches above the deck.” (First Grinnell Exp.,
p. 477.) It will be seen that he does not mention any deck beams,
which would be very necessary to keep the gunwales spread apart.
They are shown, however, on Crantz’s crude section of a kaiak
frame. (History of Greenland, vol. 1, pl. vii), and are evidently
mortised into the gunwale, as at Point Barrow. Crantz also
(op. cit., p. 150) speaks of the use of whalebone for fastening
the frame together.
Capt. Lyon’s description of the round-bottomed kaiak used at Fury
and Hecla Straits (Journal, p. 233) is much more explicit. He
describes the frame as consisting of a gunwale on each side 4 or 5
inches wide in the middle and three-fourths inch thick, tapering
at each end, sixty-four hoop-shaped ribs (on a canoe 25 feet
long), seven slight rods outside of the ribs, twenty-two
deck-beams, and a batten running fore and aft, and a hoop round
the cockpit. These large kaiaks weigh 50 or 60 pounds. There is a
very good figure of the Point Barrow kaiak, paddled with a single
paddle, in Smyth’s view of Nuwŭk (Beechey’s Voyage, pl. opposite
p. 307).]
[Illustration: FIG. 341.--Model kaiak and paddle. 1/4]
The double-bladed paddle is almost exclusively an Eskimo contrivance.
The only other hyperborean race, besides the Aleuts, who use it, are
the Yukagirs, who employ it in their narrow dugout canoes on the River
Kolyma in Siberia.[N440] Double-bladed paddles have also been observed
in the Malay Archipelago.
[Footnote N440: Wrangell, Narrative of an Expedition, etc.,
p. 161, footnote.]
Fig. 341, (No. 56561 [224] from Utkiavwiñ) is a very neatly made model
of a kaiak, 13.3 inches long. It is quite accurate in all its details,
but has only five streaks on the bottom, and its width and depth are
about twice what they should be in proportion to the length. The frame
is lashed together with fine sinew and covered with seal entrail. The
paddle is also out of proportion. Many similar neatly finished models
were made for sale. The natives are so skillful in making them that it
is possible that they are in the habit of making them for the children
to play with. I do not, however, recollect ever seeing a child with
one.
_Umiaks and fittings._--The large skin-covered open boat, essentially
the same in model as that employed by almost all Eskimo, as well as
the Aleuts and some Siberian races, is the chief means of conveyance
by water, for traveling, hunting, and fishing. Though the women do a
great share of the work of navigating the boat when a single family or
a small party is making a journey, it is by no means considered as a
woman’s boat, as appears to be the case among the Greenlanders and
eastern Eskimo generally.[N441] On the contrary, women are not
admitted into the regularly organized whaling crews, unless the
umialik can not procure men enough, and in the “scratch” crews
assembled for walrus hunting or sealing there are usually at least as
many men as women, and the men work as hard as the women. I do not,
however, recollect that I ever saw a man pull an oar in the umiak.
They appear always to use paddles alone. This is interesting in
connection with the Greenland custom mentioned by Egede in the
continuation of the passage just quoted: “And when they first set out
for the whale fishing, the men sit in a very negligent posture, with
their faces turned towards the prow, pulling with their little
ordinary paddle; but the women sit in the ordinary way, with their
faces towards the stern, rowing with long oars.”
[Footnote N441: For example: “For they think it unbecoming a man
to row such a boat, unless great necessity requires it.” Egede,
Greenland, p. 111. “It would be a scandal for a man to meddle,
except the greatest necessity compels him to lend a hand.” Crantz,
vol. 1, p. 149.]
We were unable to bring home any specimen of these boats on account of
their size, but Fig. 342, from a photograph by Lieut. Ray, will give a
good idea of the framework. These boats vary considerably in size, but
are usually very nearly the dimensions of an ordinary whaleboat--that
is, about 30 feet in length, with a beam of 5 or 6 feet and a depth of
about 2½ feet. The boat resembles very much in model the American
fisherman’s dory, having a narrow flat bottom, sharp at both ends,
with flaring sides, and considerable rake at stem and stern. Both
floor and rail have a strong sheer, fore and aft, and the gunwales
extend beyond the stem so as to meet at the bow. Both stem and stern
are sharp nearly to the rail, where they flare out and are cut off
square. These boats are exceedingly light and buoyant, and capable of
considerable speed when fully manned. They are very “quick” in their
motion and quite crank till they get down to their bearings, but
beyond that appear to be very stiff.
I never heard of one being capsized, though the natives move about
aboard of them with perfect freedom. The frame is neatly made of
pieces of driftwood, which it usually takes a considerable time to
accumulate.[N442]
[Footnote N442: Part of the description of the umiak frame is
taken from the model (No. 56563 [225]), as the writer not only had
few opportunities for careful examination of these canoes, but
unfortunately did not realize at the time the importance of
detail.]
A stout square timber, of perhaps 3 inches scantling, runs along the
middle of the bottom forming a keel or keelson. This of necessity is
usually made of several pieces of wood scarfed together and fastened
with treenails and whalebone lashings. At each end it is fastened in
the same way to the stem and sternpost, which are both of the same
shape, broad and flat above or inside, but beveled off to a keel
outside, and curving up in a knee, at the same time tapering off to
the point where the bow (or stern) begins to flare. Here it is
mortised into the under side of a trapezoidal block of wood, widest
and thickest on the inboard end, and concaved off on the under face,
to a thin edge outboard. It is held on by a transverse lashing passing
through holes in the end of the post and the thickest part of the
block. Along each side of the bottom, at what would be the bilge of a
round bottom boat, runs a stout streak, thinner and wider than the
keelson and set up edgewise. These are spread apart amidships, but
bent together fore and aft so as to be scarfed into the stem and
sternpost (see diagram, Fig. 343_a_).
[Illustration: FIG. 342.--Frame of umiak.]
On the model they are fastened here with treenails, and this is
probably also the case on the large canoes. They are spread apart by
cross pieces or floor timbers, flat rather broad boards laid across
the keelson with their ends mortised into the bilge streaks. These are
longest amidships and decrease regularly in length fore and aft. There
were fifteen of them on Nikawáalu’s umiak. On the model they are
pegged to the keelson and bilge streaks. The ribs are straight,
slender, square timbers, eighteen on each side (on Nikawáalu’s umiak;
the canoe photographed has fifteen). These are all of the same length,
but fitted obliquely to the outer edge of the bilge-streaks in such a
way (see diagram, Fig. 343_b_) that those amidships slant considerably
outward while the others become gradually more and more erect fore and
aft, thus producing the sheer in the lines. To these ribs, inside,
a little below the middle of each, is fastened a streak on each side,
of about the dimensions of the bilge streak, running from stem to
stern, and the gunwales are fitted into the notched ends of the ribs,
where they are secured by lashings of whalebone. These on Nikawáalu’s
umiak were each a single round pole about 2 inches in diameter. Such
long pieces of wood as this were probably obtained by trade from the
Nunatañmeun. These extend about 2½ or 3 feet beyond the stem, to which
they are fastened on each side by whalebone lashings, and meet at a
sharp angle, being lashed together with whalebone. On the model, this
lashing passes through holes in both gunwales and round underneath.
The gunwales are fastened to the sternpost in the same way as to the
stem, in both cases resting on the upper surface of the block so as to
form a low rail, but project only 5 or 6 inches.
[Illustration: FIG. 343.--Construction of umiak: (_a_) method of
fastening bilge streaks to stem; (_b_) method of framing rib to
gunwale, etc.]
Between the post and the last pair of long ribs at each end are two
pairs of short ribs running only from the gunwale to the inside
streak. The frame is still further strengthened by an outside streak
between the bilge streak and the inside streak, and Nikawáalu’s canoe
had an extra streak of “half-round” willow outside of the latter. The
thwarts rest on the inside streak and are secured by whalebone
lashings. The block or head of the stern-post serves as a high seat
for the steersman. Crantz’s[N443] description and diagram show that
the frame of the Greenland umiak consists of essentially the same
timbers, lacking only the two outside streaks.
[Footnote N443: History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 148, and pl. vi.]
The cover is made of the skins of the larger marine animals. Walrus
hide is often used and sometimes the skin of the polar bear, which
makes a beautifully white cover, but the skin of the bearded seal is
preferred, the people from Point Barrow sometimes making journeys to
Wainwright Inlet in search of such skins, which are dressed with their
oil in them in the manner already referred to. We were informed that
six of these skins were required to cover one umiak. They are put
together in the same way as the skins for the kaiak and sewed with the
same seam. The edges of the cover are stretched over the gunwale, and
laced to the inside streak with a stout thong, which passes through
holes in the edge of the cover. At stem and stern the cover is laced
with a separate thong to a stout transverse lashing of thong running
from gunwale to gunwale close to the edge of the posthead.
The cover is removed in the winter and stowed away on the cache frame
or some other safe place (Mûñialu, when preparing to start for the
spring deer hunt in 1883, carefully buried his boat cover in a
snowbank) out of reach of the dogs, and the frame is placed bottom
upwards on a staging 4 or 5 feet from the ground.
When they are ready to refit the canoe for the spring whaling, a hole
is cut in the sea ice close to the shore, and the cover immersed in
the sea water for several days to soften it, the hole being covered
with slabs of snow to keep it from freezing up. Crantz[N444] mentions
a similar custom in Greenland. After removing the hair from the
boat-skins “they lay them in salt water for some days to soften them
again, and so cover the women’s boats and kajaks with them.” When not
in use, the umiak is drawn up on the beach and usually laid bottom
upward with the gear, spears, etc., underneath it, but sometimes
propped up on one gunwale to make a shelter against the wind. This is
a common practice in the camp at Pernyû, where there is usually at
least one boat set up edgewise, sheltered by which the men sit to
whittle and gossip.
[Footnote N444: Vol. 1, p. 167.]
In the whaling camp at Imêkpûñ in 1883, the boats which were not ready
to go out to the open water were laid up bottom up with one end
resting on a sled set up on its side and the other supported by a
block of snow. They do not appear to be in the habit of using the
canoe for a tent, as is said to be the custom among the more southern
natives,[N445] as they always carry a tent with them on their
journeys. The umiak is propelled by paddles, oars, and a sail, and in
smooth weather when the shore is clear of ice by “tracking” along the
beach with men and dogs, one person at least always remaining on board
to steer with a paddle at the stern.
[Footnote N445: See Kotzebue’s Voyage, etc., vol. 1, p. 216.]
The sail, which they are only able to use with a free wind, is square,
narrow, and rather high, and is nowadays always made of drilling. Dark
blue drilling appeared to be the most popular sort at the time of our
visit. The head of the sail is laced to a light yard, and hoisted to
the masthead by a halyard through a hole in the latter. The mast is a
stout square pole 10 or 12 feet long and is set up well forward of
amidships, without a step, the square butt resting against a bottom
board, and held up by two forestays and two backstays, running from
the masthead to the inside streak. All the rigging, stays, halyards,
towing line, etc., are made of stout thong. The Greenlanders set up
the mast in the bow of the umiak--as a sailor would say, “in the very
eyes of her,”[N446] but as far as I can learn the Western Eskimo all
set it up as at Point Barrow.
[Footnote N446: This is also the custom among the Central Eskimo.
(See Boas “Central Eskimo,” p. 528, Fig. 481.)]
The oars are very clumsily made with very narrow blades not over 3
inches broad. They are about 7 feet long and somewhat enlarged at the
loom. Instead of resting in rowlocks, they are secured by two long
loops of thong as in the diagram Fig. 344. To keep the oar from
chafing the skin on the gunwale, they lash to the latter a long plate
of bone. No. 89696 [1197] from Utkiavwĭñ is one of these plates. Two
of these oars are commonly used in an umiak, one forward and one aft,
and the women row with great vigor, swinging well from the hips, but
do not keep stroke. The use of oars is so unusual among savages that
it would be natural to suppose that these people had adopted the
custom from the whites. If this be the case, the custom reached them
long ago, and through very indirect channels.
When Thomas Simpson, in 1837, bought an umiak from some Point Barrow
natives at Dease Inlet, he bought with it “four of their slender oars,
which they used as tent poles, besides a couple of paddles; fitted the
oars with lashings, and arranged our strange vessel so well that the
ladies were in raptures, declaring us to be genuine Esquimaux, and not
poor white men.”[N447] The custom, moreover, appears to be widespread
since Lyon speaks of seeing in 1821, “two very clumsy oars with flat
blades, pulled by women,” in the umiaks at Hudson Strait.[N448] It was
practiced at a still earlier date in Greenland.[N449]
[Footnote N447: Narrative, p. 148.]
[Footnote N448: Journal, p. 30. Compare also Chappell, “Hudson
Bay,” p. 57.]
[Footnote N449: See Egedo, Greenland, p. 111.]
[Illustration: FIG. 344.--Method of slinging the oar of umiak.]
While at Point Barrow the oars have very narrow blades and the double
paddles very broad ones, the reverse seemed to be the case in
Greenland, where the double paddle, as already noticed, has blades not
over 3 or 4 inches broad. Crantz describes the oars as “short and
broad before, pretty much like a shovel, but only longer, and * *
confined to their places on the gunnel with a strap of seal’s
leather.” (Vol. 2, p. 149 and pl. VI) Although both oars and sails are
undoubtedly quite ancient inventions (Frobisher in his description of
Meta Incognita in Hakluyt’s Voyages (1589) pp. 621 and 628, speaks of
skin boats with sails of entrail),[N450] I am strongly inclined to
believe that they are both considerably more recent than the paddles,
not only on general principles, but from the fact that the whaling
umiaks at Point Barrow use only paddles. There is no practical reason
against using either oars or sails, and in fact the latter would often
be of great advantage in silently approaching a whale, as the American
whalemen have long ago discovered. It seems to me that this is merely
another case of adhering to an obsolete custom on semireligious
grounds. The paddles are usually about 4 or 5 feet long, made of one
piece of driftwood, with slender round shafts, and lanceolate blades
about 6 inches broad, and a short rounded cross handle at the upper
end. (Fig. 345 shows two of the paddles belonging to the model.) The
steersman uses a longer paddle, and stands in the stern or sits up on
the head of the sternpost.
[Footnote N450: These passages being, as far as I know, the
earliest description of the umiak and kaiak are worth quotation:
“Their boats are made all of Seale skins, with a keel of wood
within the skinne; the proportion of them is like a Spanish
shallop, saue only they be flat in the bottome, and sharp at both
endes” (p. 621, 1576). Again: “They haue two sorts of boats made
of leather, set out on the inner side with quarters of wood,
artificially tyed with thongs of the same; the greater sort are
not much unlike our wherries, wherein sixteene or twenty men may
sitte; they have for a sayle, drest the guttes of such beasts as
they kill, very fine and thinne, which they sewe together; the
other boate is but for one man to sitte and rowe in, with one
oare” (p. 628, 1577).]
[Illustration: FIG. 345.--Model of umiak and paddles: (_a_) side
view; (_b_) inside plan.]
Fig. 345_a_ represents the model (No. 56563 [225] from Utkiavwĭñ),
which gives a very good idea of the shape of one of these boats. It is
quite correct in all its parts, though the timbers are rather too
heavy, and there are not so many ribs and floor timbers as in a
full-sized canoe. The breadth of beam, 6.2 inches, is at least 1 inch
too great in proportion to the length, 25 inches. The cover is one
piece of seal skin which has been partially tanned by the
“white-tanning” process, and put on wet. In drying it has turned
almost exactly the color of a genuine boat cover. The frame, as is
often the case with a full-sized boat, is painted all over with red
ocher. (See Fig. 345_b_, inside plan.)
[Illustration: FIG. 346.--Ivory bailer for umiak. 1/4]
For bailing these boats a long narrow dipper of ivory or bone is used,
of such a shape as to be especially well suited for working in between
the floor timbers. Fig. 346 represents one of these (No. 56536 [40]
from Utkiavwĭñ). It is a piece of walrus tusk 16.3 inches long. The
cavity is 1.1 inches deep and was excavated by drilling vertical holes
and cutting away the substance between them. Some of the holes have
not been completely worked out. A similar bailer (No. 89835 [1010]
also from Utkiavwĭñ) is made of reindeer antler, a substance much more
easily worked than the ivory, as the soft interior tissue exposed by
cutting the upper side flat is readily carved out. As with the walrus
tusk, the natural curve of the material gives the proper inclination
to the handle. It is 18.3 inches long.
When the umiak is fitted out for whaling a stout #U#-shaped crotch of
ivory or bone, about 7 inches long and 5 wide, is lashed between the
gunwales where they meet at the bow. In this the heavy harpoon rests
when they are approaching a whale. It is only used when whaling. The
Museum collection contains specimens of this sort from as far south as
the Diomede Islands.
We brought home five specimens of these kû´nnɐ, of which No. 56510
[117] Fig. 347 has been selected as the type. This is made of two
bilaterally symmetrical pieces of white walrus ivory, each piece
consisting of one arm of the crotch and half the shank. Its total
length is 7.8 inches. The two pieces are held together by a stout
wooden tree-nail, and above this a lashing of sinew-braid, lodged in
two deep vertical channels one on each side of the shank just below
the arms, and wedged above and below on both sides with slips of wood.
A hole is drilled through each side of the butt close to the end, and
through these a lashing is stretched across the reentering angle of
the butt consisting of four turns of sinew braid with the end closely
wrapped round the parts between the holes, and neatly tucked in.
[Illustration: FIG. 347.--Ivory crotch for harpoon. 1/3]
Just at the bend of each arm is a small round becket hole, running
obliquely from the back to the outer side. In each of these is a neat
becket, about ¾ inches long, made of several turns of sinew braid,
with the end neatly wrapped around them. These beckets serve to
receive the lashings for attaching the crotch to the gunwales. All the
ornamental figures are incised and blackened.
Three of the remaining four specimens are of walrus-ivory, and of
essentially the same pattern, differing only in ornamentation and
other minor details. No. 56511 [116], from Utkiavwĭñ, is almost
exactly like the type and of very nearly the same size. It is fastened
together with a lashing only, but no treenail, and the beckets have
been removed from the becket holes. The border is colored with red
ocher, and there are two whales’ tails instead of one on the shank.
The other two have the tips of the arms carved into the shape of
whales’ heads. No. 89418 [1224], Fig. 348, from Utkiavwĭñ, is
otherwise of the same shape as those already described, but is lashed
together with stout seal thong, and has four beckets of the same
material, two in the usual position and two at the widest part of the
shank. These take the place of the loop running across the butt. On
the middle of the back of each arm is a small cross incised and
blackened with a small blue glass bead inlaid in the center, and there
are two whale’s tails on the opposite face of the shank. It is 8
inches long.
No. 89419 [926], from Nuwŭk, has a nearly straight shank with a flange
on each side at the butt. It is lashed together with whalebone and has
also a treenail, like the type. The upper beckets are of sinew-braid.
A large becket at the butt is made by looping and knotting the ends of
a bit of thong into a hole in each flange. There is one whale’s tail
engraved on the front of the shank. When lashed in position the front
or ornamental side faces inboard, as is indicated by the shape of the
shank, which is slightly narrower behind than in front, so as to fit
between the converging gunwales. No. 8917 [1104], Fig. 349, from
Nuwuk, the only one of the kind seen, is a very interesting form. It
is made by cutting a horizontal slice out of the lower jaw of a
walrus, so that it form the arms of the crotch, while the thick
symphysis is cut into a shank of the usual shape, with the two upper
beckets in the usual place and a large one at the butt, passing
through a transverse hole. These beckets are roughly made of thong.
Its total length is 6.6 inches.
[Illustration: FIG. 348.--Ivory crotch for harpoon.]
[Illustration: FIG. 349.--Crotch for harpoon made of walrus jaw.]
This specimen from its soiled condition is undoubtedly quite ancient,
and probably of an older type than the highly ornamented ivory
crotches of the present day. The latter are evidently only copies of
the jawbone crotch in a material susceptible of a higher finish than
the coarse bone. The only reason for making them in two pieces is that
it is impossible to get a single piece of walrus ivory large enough
for a whole one. It seems to me highly probable that the crotch was
suggested by the natural shape of the walrus jaw, since these are
frequently used for crotches to receive the cross pieces of the cache
frames. Perhaps, for a while, the whole jaw was simply lashed to the
bow of the boat. The next step would obviously be to cut out the shank
and reduce the weight of the crotch by trimming off the superfluous
material. The reason for making the crotch of ivory is perhaps purely
esthetic; but more likely connected with the notions already referred
to which lead them to clean up their boats and gear and adorn
themselves and paint their faces when they go to the whale fishery.
Although, as I have already stated, there appears to be no essential
difference in the general plan of the frame of the Greenland umiaks
and those used at Point Barrow, there seems to be considerable
difference in the size and outward appearance. As well as can be
judged from the brief descriptions and rude figures of various
authors[N451] and various models in the National Museum (the
correctness of which, however, I can not be sure of, without having
seen the originals) the umiak not only in Greenland, but among the
Eskimo generally as far west as the Mackenzie, is a much more wall
sided square ended boat than at Point Barrow, having less sheer to the
gunwales with the stem and stern-post nearly vertical.[N452] Mr. L. M.
Turner informs me that this is the case at Ungava Bay. It was also a
larger boat. Egede says that they “are large and open * * * some of
them 20 yards long;”[N453] Crantz gives their length as “commonly 6,
nay 8 or 9 fathoms long;”[N454] Kumlien says that it required “about
fifteen skins of Phoca barbata” to cover an umiak at Cumberland
Gulf,[N455] and Mr. Turner informs me that eight are used at Ungava.
Capt. Parry found no umiaks at Fury and Hecla straits[N456] and
Kumlien says that they are becoming rare at Cumberland Gulf. The
so-called Arctic Highlanders of Smith Sound have no boats of any kind.
The model used at Point Barrow probably prevails as far south as
Kotzebue Sound. The boats that boarded us off Wainwright Inlet in the
autumn of 1883, and those of the Nunatañmiun who visited Point Barrow,
seemed not to differ from those with which we were familiar, except
that the latter were rather light and low sided, nor do I remember
anything peculiar about the boats which we saw at Plover Bay in 1881.
[Footnote N451: Compare for instance Kane’s figure 1st Grinnell
Exp. p. 422, and Lyon, Journal, p. 30.]
[Footnote N452: See Beechey Voyage, p. 252. In describing the
umiaks at Hotham Inlet he says: “The model differs from that of
the umiak of the Hudson Bay in being sharp at both ends.” Smyth
gives a good figure of the Hotham Inlet craft in the plate
opposite p. 250.]
[Footnote N453: Greenland, p. 111.]
[Footnote N454: Vol. 1, p. 148.]
[Footnote N455: Contributions, p. 43. Boas, however, says three to
five skins. (Central Eskimo, p. 528.)]
[Footnote N456: 2d Voy., p. 507.]
There is very little accessible detailed information regarding the
umiaks used in the rest of Alaska. From Dall’s figure[N457] and a few
models in the Museum, the Norton Sound umiak appears to have the
gunwales united at both stem and stern. Those that we saw at St.
Michael’s in 1883, were so much modified by Russian ideas as to be
wholly out of the line of comparison. The same is true of the Aleutian
“baidara,” if, indeed, the latter be an umiak at all.
[Footnote N457: Alaska, p. 15.]