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The Kayak in North-Western Europe

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The Kayak in North-Western Europe The Kayak in North-Western Europe. Author(s): David MacRitchie Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 42 (Jul. - Dec., 1912), pp. 493-510 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2843199 . Accessed: 15/06/2012 09:57 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. http://www.jstor.org 493 THE KAYAK IN NORTH-WESTERN EUROPE. BY DAVID MACRITCHIE. THE word kayakis here taken in its common acceptation as denotingthe long, narrow,skin-covered canoe of the Eskimo. This kind of canoe has othernames; and, conversely,the word kayak (varyinginto kayik and kayook)is sometimes applied to vessels of a differentdescription.' But it is convenientto employthe wordin its commonestsense. At the present day the kayak is in use over a great extent of the Arctic regions,from East Greenland westward across Arctic America,and along some 800 miles of the Asiatic coast,both westward and south-westwardfrom Behring Straits. In the sixteenthand seventeenthcenturies it is reportedat a pointvery much fartherto the west, namely, on the coast of north-eastRussia beside Vrigatz Island. StephenBurrough, the English traveller,who visitedthat coast in 1556, has furnishedus with an account of the natives,in the course of which he says: " Their boats are made of deer's skins,and when theycome on shore theycarry theirboats with them upon theirbacks."2 This statementwould apply to existing Eskimo and theirkayaks.3 A centuryafter Burrough,the same coast was visited by a Danish tradinoexpedition sailing fromCopenhagen. The French surgeon of the expedition,who has lefta racy accountof the voyage,describes how the ships' boats gave chase to a native of this localitywhom theysaw in his canoe, a mile and a half fromthe shore. " As soon as he saw us coining towards him,"says the chronicler," he rowedwith such force that it was impossible for us to get near him. And on reachingthe shore,he, with great swiftnessand dexterity,lifted his 1 The Turkish kaik, or kayik(Fr. caique), is a wooden skiff. Then, again, there are referencesto cayooks,or cayyucks,on the River Petchora, North Russia, in 1611, which were vessels of from four to seven tons. (See Purchashis Pitqrimes,Part III, lib. iii, pp. 534 and 540.) Canon Isaac Taylor states his belief (Athenceum,26th July, 1879 ; Acaderl&y,11th November, 1893) that the earliest assignable home of the word was the shores of Lake Baikal, befoirethe great scission of the Turkic race " which took the Seljuks westward to the Bosphorus, and the Yakuts nQrthward down the Lena to the shores of the Arctic Ocean." He regards it as probable that-the Eskimos at the mouth of the Lena took this name with them in their migration across Behring's Straits to the shores of Greenland. 2 Hakluyt, firstedition, p. 318. 3 Even the referenceto deer-skin as a covering is still applicable, although seal-skin is more commonly used. The Hudson's Bay Eskimos employ deer-skin (Hanbury's Sportand Travelint theNorthland of Canada, London, 1904, p. 3). 2 L 2 494 DAVID MACRITCHIE.-The Kayak in North-Western _Europe. canoe upon his shoulder,and holdinghis bow and his spear in the otherhand (his quiver being on his back), he sped away." When these two accounts are taken togetherit seems fairlyevident that the skin kayak is denoted. But thereis no doubt whatever in the followingdescription of a canoe, containinga man and a woman,which the Danes captured the same day. " The canoe was made in the style of a gondola(fait en gondolle),being fifteenor sixteenfeet long by two and a half feetbroad, very cleverlyconstructed of fishribs (probably baleen or whalebone) coveredwith fish skins (? seal skins)stitched together, thus makingthe canoe a purse, as it were,from one end to the other. Within it the two were enclosed up to the waist in such a mannlerthat not a single drop of water could get into their little vessel, so that they were enabled to expose themselves to everytempest without any danger."' A very peculiar interest attaches to this record of a two-holedkayak in European watersin the seventeenthcentury. The two-holedkayak appears to be quite unknownbetween East Greenlandand Alaska, and it is speciallyassociated with the Aleutian Isles. The earliest picture of a two-holedkayak, so far as I know,is that given by Captain Cook,and it belongsonly to the latterpart of the eighteenthcentury. That varietywas seen by Captain Cook at Unalaska in the Aleutian Isles, and it seems to have been a noveltyto him. Yet here we have a word-pictureof a hundredyears earlier,showing the two-holed kayak as in use at that date on the north-eastcoast of Russia. This varietyof kayak,therefore, appears to belono to the Eurasian continentand to the Aleutian Isles; occasionally intrudingitself in Alaska as a visitorfrom the west. Mentionmay be made of the harpoon-pointsfound in Lapland at Kjelm6, on the south side of the VarangerFiord. " Some of these harpoon-pointsresemble old, primitive,Eskimo formis,which are foundin Greenland,"observes Dr. Nansen. He adds that theyare remnarkablysmiall, and could not have been used for any animal largerthan a seal. He furtherstates that " Nothinghas been foundwhich mightafford us informationas to the kinidof boats these northernsealers used."2 It would not be surprisingif these boats were of the same descriptionas the skin kayaks of the Archangelcoast, but, on the other hand, theymight have been woodenboats. Nevertheless,the existenceof these harpoon-pointsoii the south side of the Varanger Fiord,and their resemblance to old Eskimo forms,may be appropriatelykept in view. Contemporaneouswith the kayaks of the North Russian coast are certain indubitable kayaks reported from Northern Scotland. One of these is the specimen preservedin Aberdeen. It is stated to have been captured near the Aberdeenshirecoast, and it is now in the AnthropologicalMuseum, Marischal College, Aberdeen. Its history is given by Francis Douglas, in his General 1 These referencesto the canoes seen by the Danish expeditionwill be found in Martiniare'sVoyage des Pais Septentrionautx,Paris, 1671,pp. 150-3. 2 In NorthernMists, London, 1911, pp. 215-6. DAVID MAcRITCHIE.-The Kayakin North-Western Europe. 495 Descriptionof theEast Coastof Scotland(Paisley, 1782). At the time of Douglas's visit to Aberdeen the kayak was preservedin the libraryof Marischal College along with othercuriosities, and he thus refersto it in giving a summaryof the objects that specially attracted his attention: "A canoe taken at sea, with an Indian man in it, about the beginningof this century.' He was brought-alive to Aberdeen,but died soon after his arrival,and could give no account of himself. He is supposed to have come fromthe Labrador coast,and to have lost his way at sea. The canoe is coveredwith fishskins, curiously stretched upon slight timbers verysecurely joined together. The upper part of it is about twentyinches broad at the centre,and runs offgradually to a point at both ends. Where broadest, thereis a circularhole, just large enioughfor the man to sit in, round which there is a kind of girth,about a foot high,to which he fixed himself,probably when he did not use his oar or paddle, which,when he chose it, he stuck into some lists of skin tied round the canoe, but slack enoughto let in the paddle and some other awkward utensils which were found stuck there. The canoe is about 18 feet long,and slopes on both sides, but the bottom is flat for 3 or 4 inches in the middle and gradually sharpensas it approaches the extremitiestill it ends in a point." The generalcorrectness of the measurementsgiven by Douglas is confirmed by ProfessorReid of Aberdeen University,who adds the informationthat the weightof the kayak is about thirty-fourpounds. ProfessorReid has favouredme witha veryprecise and detailed account of the kayak and the implementsbelonging to it, which,with his permission,is annexed hereto. With regard to the circumstancesattending the captureof this kayak it must be borne in mind that our firstprinted informationis obtainedfrom a man who visited Aberdeen some eighty years after the event. He states that it occurred "about the beginning of the century,"which may be held to denote any date between 1690 and 1710. In the course of the eightyyears the factsmay have become partlyforgotten. In statingthat the captive " could give no account of himself,"Douglas leaves us in doubt as to whetherhis languagewas notintelligible to his captors or whetherhe was then too weak to speak coherently. It is evident, at any rate,that Douglas regardedhim as an Eskimo; because a so-called" Indian man " who is supposed to have come fromLabrador in a kayak could have been no otherthan an Eskimo. Further,the scene of the captureof the kayak and its occupantis inotclearly inidicatedby Douglas. " Taken at sea "' is vague enough. However,the unwritten beliefwhich has been handed down with the canoe in Aberdeenis that the capture took place in the NorthSea, not far fromAberdeen. 1 It maybe pointedthat in the second editionof Douglas's book,published in 1826, no editorialnotice is takenof the words " this century." Readers who are unawarethat Douglas wrotethe wordsabout the year 1782,when his book firstappeared, will naturallyfall into the mistake of supposiiigthat the period referredto is about the beginningof the nineteenth century.
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