baidarka

Baidarka - the Aleut kayak. It's gorgeous. The Engines of Our Ingenuity site has a page on them.

Says the page:

A small baidarka is light enough that a child can carry it. It'll capsize if you put it in the water without a passenger. It's a whalebone and driftwood frame covered with sealskin. You have to be a gymnast to get into one. But, once in, you can skim the water at 10 knots. You can land a seal -- even a whale.

Aleut navigators rode their baidarkas far out to sea -- to California, to the warm Pacific. Aleut legend tells how we know the earth is round. They once sent young men out in two baidarkas. They came back old, without ever having found any edge.

There are lots of web sites on how to build them. Here's one that has lots of photos.

These photos come from other sites: