THE ABERDEEN KAYAK and ITS CONGENERS. by DAVID MACRITCHIE, F.S.A
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THE ABERDEEN KAYAK AND ITS CONGENERS. 213 V. THE ABERDEEN KAYAK AND ITS CONGENERS. By DAVID MACRITCHIE, F.S.A. SCOT. The following observations supplement, to a considerable extent, a paper which I read before the Society many years ago, on the subject oa so-callef d " Finnish " boat preserve Edinburgh.n i d t thaA 1t t awarno s etim thawa I e similaa t r boat, wit similaha r history, was, and is still, preserved in Aberdeen. Indeed, I only became aware of that fact last autumn, which is my excuse for not taking an earlier opportunit drawinf yo e attentiogth e Societ th s existence f it n o o yt . e specieTh f boao s n questioi t s knowi n a kayak.wore s na Th d kayak is here taken in its common acceptation as denoting the long, narrow, skin-covered canoe of the Eskimos. This kind of canoe has other name s; and, conversely e worth , d kayak (varying into kayik kayook)d an s sometimei s applie vesselo dt differena f so t description. But it is useful to employ the word in its commonest sense. e presenth t A tovee day us kayae greaa r n th i , s tki extene th f o t Arctic regions, from East Greenland westward across Arctic America, and along some 800 miles of the Asiatic coast, both westward and south-westward from Bering Straits. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it is reported at a point very much farther to the west, namely, on the coast of north-east Russia, beside Vaygatz Island. Stephen Burrough, the English traveller visiteo wh , d that coas n 1556i ts furnisheha , s witdu n a h account of the natives, in the course of which he says : " Their boats are made of deers' skins, and when they come on shore they carry their boats with them upon their backs." 2 This statement would 1 See vol. xxiv. of the Proceedings, pp. 353-369. 2 Hakluyt, first edition, p. 318. 214 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 12, 1912. appl o existint y g Eskimo d theian s r kayaks. centurA 1 y after Burrough, the same coast was visited by a Danish trading expedition, sailing from Copenhagen. The French surgeon of the expedition, who has left a racy account of the voyage, describes how the ships' boats gave chasa nativ o t ef thi o e s locality whos hi mn i thew ysa canoe a mile and a half from the shore. " As soon as he saw us coming towards him," says the chronicler, " he rowed with such force that it wa t neas ge impossibl ro t him s u .r efo And reachinn o , e shoregth , he, with great swiftness and dexterity, lifted his canoe upon his e othes speath hi n rshoulderi d r hanan w d holdin bo an (hi, s shi g quive rback s beinhi spe e n h )g o d away." When thes accounto etw s are taken together, it seems fairly evident that the skin kayak is denoted. But there is no doubt whatever in the following description of a canoe, containing a man and a woman, which the Danes captured canoe style madgondol: s a same " th Th f y th ewa o n ei da a (fait en gondolle), fee6 1 tr beino lon 2y 5 gb 1 | feet broad, very cleverly constructed of fish ribs (probably baleen or whalebone), covered with fish skins (? seal-skins) stitched together, thus making the canoe a othere purseth t wereo i t wer.o s d a ,tw Withi,e en e froe th m on t ni enclosed up to the waist in such a manner that not a single drop of water could get into their little vessel, so that they were enabled to expose themselves to every tempest without any danger." 2 A very peculiar interest attaches to this record of a two-holed kayak in European waters in the seventeenth century. The two- holed kayak appear e quitb o et s unknown between East Greenland s specialli d Alaskat i an d yan , associated wit e Aleutiath h n Isles. e earliesTh t pictur two-holea f o e I know ds a kayak s r thai , fa to s , given by Captain Cook (fig. 1), and it only belongs to the latter part Even the reference to deer-skin is still applicable, although seal-skin is the 1 material commonly used. The Hudson Bay Eskimos employ deer-skin (Han- bury's Sport and Travel in the Northland of Canada, London, 1904, p. 3). 2 These reference canoee th o t sDanise s th see y nb h expedition wil foune b l n di Martiniere's Voyage des Pais Septentrionaux, Paris, 1671, pp. 150-153. E ABERDEETH CONGENERSNS KAYAIT D KAN . 215 e eighteentoth f h century. That variet s see Captaiy ywa b n n Cook t Unalashka Aleutiae th n ai n t seemIslesi d havo an ,st e bee nnovelta y to him. Yet here we have a word-picture of a hundred years earlier showing the two-holed kayak as in use at that date on the north-east coas Russiaf o t . This variet kayakf yo , therefore, appear belono st g e Eurasiath o t ne Aleutia th continen o t nd Islesan t ; occasionally intruding itself in Alaska as a visitor from the west. Mention may be made of the harpoon-points found in Lapland, at Aleutiao PigTw . 1 .n Kayaks, singl doubled ean , eighteenth century. Kjelmo, on the south side of the Varanger Fiord. " Some of these harpoon-points resemble old primitive Eskimo forms, which are found in Greenland," observe r NansensD adde H .s that the remarke yar - ably small d coul t an hav, dno e bee animay n an use r dfo l larger than furtheseale a H . r states that, " nothin bees gha n found which might affor s informatiou d e kin th f boatdo o t ss na thes e northern sealers used surprisin.t e woul"I b 1 t dno thef gi ye sam werth f eeo descrip - tion as the skin kayaks of the Archangel coast, but, on the other hand, they might have been wooden boats. Nevertheless, the existence of I1 n Northern Mists, London, 1911, pp. 215-216. 6 21 PROCEEDING SE SOCIETY OTH P , FEBRUAR , 1912Y12 . these harpoon-point e soutth n he Varangeo sth sid f o e r Fiordd an , their resemblance to old Eskimo forms, may be appropriately kept in view. Contemporaneous wit e kayak e Northth th f o hs Russian coase ar t certain indubitable kayaks reported from Northern Scotlande On . of these is the specimen preserved in Aberdeen. It is stated to have been captured near the Aberdeenshire coast, and it is now in the Anthropological Museum, Marischal College, University of Aberdeen. Its history is given by Francis Douglas in his General Description of the East Coast of Scotland (Paisley, 1782). At the time of Douglas's visi Aberdeeno t e kaya th ,preserves kwa Librare th n di Marischaf yo l College, along with other curiosities thue h sgivind n i refer an t ,i go t s a summar e objectth f o y s that specially attracte s attentiohi d n :— " A Canoe taken at sea, with an Indian man in it, about the beginning of this century.broughs wa e H t 1aliv o Aberdeenet t diebu ,d soon after his arrival, and could give no account of himself. He is supposed to have come from the Labrador coast, and to have lost his way at canoe seaTh s covere.ei d with fish skins, curiously stretched upon slight timbers very securely joined together. The upper part of it is about 20 inches broad at the centre, and runs off gradually to a poin t bota t h ends. Where broadest ther a circula s i e r hole, just large enough for the man to sit in, round which there is a kind of girth, abou a foot t high whico t , fixee h d himself, probablyd whedi e nh oars paddlr hi o ,e us et ; which no , whe chosstuce e nh h , keit into some list skif so n tied roun canoee dth t slac paddle bu , th k n enougi et le o ht and some other awkward utensils which were found stuck there. The cano s aboui e fee8 1 t t long d slopean , botn o s he th sides t bu , It may be pointed out that in the second edition of Douglas's book, published 1 in 1826, no editorial notice is taken of the words " this century." Readers of that edition who are unaware that Douglas wrote the words about the year 1782, when his book first appeared, will naturally fall int e mistakoth f supposineo g thae th t period referre abous i beginnino e dt th t nineteente th f go h century. ABERDEEE TH N KAYAK CONGENERSANS 7 DIT 21 . inche4 middlee botto r th o gradualln d s3 i mflar s an ,i fo t y sharpens as it approaches the extremities till it ends in a point." e generaTh ] correctnes e measurementth f o s s give Douglay b n s i s confirmed by Professor Eeid of Aberdeen University, who has favoured me with the following precise and detailed account of the kayak and the implements belonging to it:— DESCRIPTION OF KAYAK PRESERVED IN THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL MUSEUM or THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN.