Boat-Building and Boating

by Daniel Carter Beard

Toasting

After the bark has dropped upon the ground the inside surface is warmed with a torch, which softens and straightens it out flat. The torch is made of a bundle of birch bark held in a split stick ([Fig. 81]).

It is then rolled up like a carpet, with inside surface out, and tightly bound, generally with cedar bark when the latter can be procured ([Fig. 80]).

If the tree is long enough, a piece is taken off at least nineteen feet in length, so that the ends of the canoe may not be pieced out. A few shorter pieces are wrapped up with the bundle for piecing out the sides.