Some tribes use a double paddle, that is, an oar with a blade at each end, which they dip on one side and the other alternately; other tribes use the single-bladed paddle. Each one of the males among the natives has his canoe, for the water is his only highway, and without his boat he would be as helpless as one of our Western Indians on the plains without his pony. When the “dug-outs” are drawn up upon the shore in scores, they present a curious appearance, packed with grass and covered with matting to keep them from being cracked and warped by the sun. The bows and stern of many of them are elaborately carved totem-fashion, and also painted in strange designs with a black pigment. The fore part of the boat rises with an upward sheer, and is higher at the prow than at the stern. There is another form of boat used by the Eskimos and natives of the outlying islands, being a simple frame of wood, covered with sea-lion skin from which the hair has been removed. These boats are covered over the tops as well as the bottoms, being almost level with the sea, leaving only a hole for the occupant to sit in, thus making them absolutely water-tight, a life-boat, in fact, which will float in any water so long as they will hold together. The waves may dash over them but cannot enter them. These skin-covered boats, admirably adapted to their legitimate purpose, are known on the coast as “bidarkas,” in the management of which the natives evince great skill, making long journeys in them, and braving all sorts of weather. Like the Madras surf-boats, no nails are used in their construction, either in the skeleton frame or in putting on the covering, the several parts being lashed and sewed together in the most artistic fashion with sinews and leather thongs, which enables them to bear a greater strain than if they were held together by any other means. The thongs admit of a certain degree of flexibility when it is required, an effect which cannot be got with nail fastenings. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XV. Still sailing Northward.—Multitudes of Water-Fowls.—Native Graveyards.— Curious Totem-Poles.—Tribal and Family Emblems.—Division of the Tribes.—Whence the Race came.—A Clew to their Origin.—The Northern Eskimos.—A Remarkable Museum of Aleutian Antiquities.—Jade Mountain.— The Art of Carving.—Long Days.—Aborigines of the Yukon Valley.—Their Customs.