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(p. 41)
"The oomiak (umiak, Greenland), or luggage boat,
is chiefly used, according to Crantz, for the purpose
of removing the effects of families in their excursions
during the summer season.
The frame-work is of wood and whalebone, the bottom flat, and both head and stern nearly square. The skins which cover the frame are of the seal, and deprived of hair; they are at all times somewhat transparent, but more particularly so when wetted. Seats, to the amount of five or six, are placed in the boat, as with Europeans. Two very clumsy oars, with flat blades, are pulled by the women, and one is used by the person who steers. The sides of the boat are flat, and about three feet high; they vary much in size. Of those which came off the first time, there was one which measured twenty-five feet by eight, and contained women, boys, and small children, to the amount of twenty-one persons." |
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