[2] For their aid to him the author takes this occasion to extend particular thanks. He also thanks his Smithsonian Institution colleagues in the Division of Ethnology, U.S. National Museum; members of the staffs of The American Museum of Natural History and The Museum of the American Indian in New York, of the Peabody Museum at Harvard, and of the Stefansson Library at Dartmouth; and the Washington State Historical Society and Museum, and others in the Northwest who gave both aid and encouragement.
The object of the study, as will be seen, was to measure the skin boats and to make scale drawings that would permit the construction of a replica exact in details of appearance, form, construction, and also in working behavior. Special regard was given to the diversity of types with respect to hull form and construction methods; but questions of ethnic trends, tribal migrations, and such matters, being outside the scope of the study, were not considered. Wherever possible, full-size craft were used as the source, but where only fragments existed, these had to be supplemented by reference to and interpretation of models of the same type.
In spite of the difficulty of locating skin boats of some Arctic areas, examples of most of those mentioned by explorers since 1875 have been found and recorded, so that, as far as possible, every distinctive tribal type of Arctic skin boat which in 1946 was represented by museum exhibits in the eastern United States is represented in plans here.
Figure 157
Eighteenth-Century Lines Drawing of a kayak, from Labrador or southern Baffin Island (according to Dr. Kaj Birket-Smith of the Danish National Museum). Note the long stem that is characteristic of present day kayaks from Labrador. The lettering apparently reads:
- From Strait's Snt. David
- A Canoe—N.B. The sections are 2 feet asunder from forward
- Length 21'-6"
- Breadth 2'-1½"
- Depth 0'-8¼"
(Courtesy National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England.)
With the material available it was not possible, of course, to explore all the individual types and forms in full; hence, the geographical range of a type can be stated only approximately, owing to the overlapping of tribal groups and the almost constant migratory movement of the Eskimo. Originally the 2-and 3-cockpit kayaks of Russian colonial Alaska had been omitted as being probably the results of Russian influence. John Heath, however, believing attention should be given to this type, has very kindly prepared for me a fine draught of such a kayak, or "baidarka" (other spellings of this name are common); this is shown on page [197].