The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America, by Edwin Tappan Adney and Howard Irving Chapelle

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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM

BULLETIN 230

WASHINGTON, D. C.

1964

MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY

The
Bark Canoes and Skin Boats
of
North America

Edwin Tappan Adney
and
Howard I. Chapelle

Curator of Transportation

B031222CA

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON, D. C.
1964

Publications of the United States National Museum

The scholarly and scientific publications of the United States National Museum include two series, Proceedings of the United States National Museum and United States National Museum Bulletin.

In these series the Museum publishes original articles and monographs dealing with the collections and work of its constituent museums—The Museum of Natural History and the Museum of History and Technology—setting forth newly acquired facts in the fields of Anthropology, Biology, History, Geology, and Technology. Copies of each publication are distributed to libraries, to cultural and scientific organizations, and to specialists and others interested in the different subjects.

The Proceedings, begun in 1878, are intended for the publication, in separate form, of shorter papers from the Museum of Natural History. These are gathered in volumes, octavo in size, with the publication date of each paper recorded in the table of contents of the volume.

In the Bulletin series, the first of which was issued in 1875, appear longer, separate publications consisting of monographs (occasionally in several parts) and volumes in which are collected works on related subjects. Bulletins are either octavo or quarto in size, depending on the needs of the presentation. Since 1902 papers relating to the botanical collections of the Museum of Natural History have been published in the Bulletin series under the heading Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, and since 1959, in Bulletins titled "Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology," have been gathered shorter papers relating to the collections and research of that Museum.

This work, the result of cooperation with the Mariners' Museum, the Stefansson Library, the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, and the American Museum of Natural History, forms number 230 of the Bulletin series.

Frank A. Taylor

Director, United States National Museum

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON: 1964

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402—Price $6.75

Special acknowledgment

Is here gratefully made to The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia, under whose auspices was prepared and with whose cooperation is here published the part of this work based on the Adney papers; also to the late Vilhjalmur Stefansson, for whose Encyclopedia Arctica was written the chapter on Arctic skin boats.

Contents

Page
Introduction[1]
1.Early History7
2.Materials and Tools[14]
3.Form and Construction[27]
Form[27]
Construction[36]
4.Eastern Maritime Region[58]
Micmac[58]
Malecite[70]
St. Francis[88]
Beothuk[94]
5.Central Canada[99]
Eastern Cree[101]
Têtes de Boule[107]
Algonkin[113]
Ojibway[122]
Western Cree[132]
Fur-trade Canoes[135]
6.Northwestern Canada[154]
Narrow-Bottom Canoe[155]
Kayak-Form Canoe[158]
Sturgeon-Nose Canoe[168]
7.Arctic Skin Boats: by Howard I. Chapelle[174]
The Umiak[181]
The Kayak[190]
8.Temporary Craft[212]
Bark Canoes[212]
Skin Boats[219]
Retrospect[221]
Appendix: The Kayak Roll, by John D. Heath[223]
Bibliography[231]
Index[235]

Illustrations

FigurePage
1Fur-trade canoe on the Missinaibi River, 1901. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)[2]
2Page from a manuscript of 1771, "Observations on Hudsons Bay," by Alexander Graham, Factor. (In archives of Hudson's Bay Company.)[9]
3Canoes from LaHontan's Nouveaux Voyages ... dans l'Amerique septentrionale, showing crude representations typical of early writers.[11]
4Lines of an old birch-bark canoe, probably Micmac, brought to England in 1749 from New England. (From Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.)[12]
5Ojibway Indian carrying spruce roots, Lac Seul, Ont., 1919. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)[15]
6Roll of bark for a hunting canoe. Algonkin Reserve, at Golden Lake, Ont., 1927.[16]
7Sketch: wood-splitting techniques, cedar and spruce.[17]
8-19Sketches of tools: 8, stone axe; 9, stone hammer, wedge, and knife; 10, mauls and driving sticks; 11, stone scraper; 12, bow drill; 13, modern Hudson Bay axe; 14, steel fur-trade tomahawk; 15, steel canoe awls; 16, crooked knives; 17, froe; 18, shaving horse; 19, bucksaw.[17]
20Peeling, rolling, and transporting bark. (Sketches by Adney.)[25]
21Sketch: Building frame for a large canoe.[26]
22, 23 Sketches: Effect on canoe bottom of crimping and goring bark.[30]
24Sketch: Canoe formed by use of gores and panels.[31]
25Gunwale ends nailed and wrapped with spruce roots. (Sketch by Adney.)[31]
26Gunwales and stakes on building bed, plan view. (Sketch by Adney.)[32]
27Photo: Gunwale lashings, examples made by Adney.[33]
28Photo: Gunwale-end lashings, examples made by Adney.[33]
29Sketch: Splints arranged in various ways to sheath the bottom of a canoe.[34]
30End details, including construction of stem-pieces. (Sketches by Adney.)[35]
31Lines of 2½-fathom St. John River Malecite canoe.[36]
32Malecite canoe building, 1910. (Canadian Geological Survey photos.)[39]
33First stage of canoe construction: assembled gunwale frame is used to locate stakes temporarily on building bed. (Sketch by Adney.)[40]
34Second stage of canoe construction: bark cover is laid out on the building bed, and the gunwales are in place upon it. (Sketch by Adney.)[41]
35Photo: Malecite canoe builders near Fredericton, N.B., using wooden plank building bed.[42]
36Sketch: Two common styles of root stitching used in bark canoes.[43]
37Comparison of canoe on the building bed and canoe when first removed from building bed during fifth stage of construction. (Detail sketches by Adney.)[44]
38Third stage of canoe construction: the bark cover is shaped on the building bed. (Sketch by Adney.)[45]
39Cross section of canoe on building bed during third and fourth stages of construction. (Sketch by Adney.)[46]
40Sketch: Multiple cross section through one side of a canoe on the building bed, at the headboard, middle, first, and second thwarts.[46]
41Fourth stage of canoe construction: bark cover has been shaped and all stakes placed. (Sketch by Adney.)[47]
42Fifth stage of canoe construction: canoe is removed from building bed and set on horses to shape ends and complete sewing. (Sketch by Adney.)[49]
43Ribs being dried and shaped for Ojibway canoe. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)[50]
44Sketch: Details of ribs and method of shaping them in pairs.[51]
45Sixth stage of canoe construction: in this stage splints for sheathing (upper left) are fixed in place and held by temporary ribs (lower right) under the gunwales. (Sketch by Adney.)[53]
46General details of birch-bark canoe construction, in a drawing by Adney. (From Harper's Young People, supplement, July 29, 1890.)[54]
47Gunwale construction and thwart or crossbar fastenings, as shown in a sketch by Adney. (Harper's Young People, supplement, July 29, 1890.)[56]
48"Peter Joe at Work." Drawing by Adney for his article "How an Indian Birch-Bark Canoe is Made." (Harper's Young People, supplement, July 29, 1890.)[57]
49Lines of 2-fathom Micmac pack, or woods, canoe.[59]
50Lines of 2-fathom Micmac pack, or woods, canoe.[60]
51Lines of 2-fathom Micmac pack, or woods, canoe.[61]
52Lines of 2½-fathom Micmac big-river canoe.[62]
53Lines of 3-fathom Micmac ocean canoe fitted for sailing.[63]
54Micmac rough-water canoe, Bathurst, N.B. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)[64]
55Micmac Woods canoe, built by Malecite Jim Paul at St. Mary's Reserve in 1911. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)[64]
56Micmac rough-water canoe fitted for sailing. (Photo W. H. Mechling, 1913.)[65]
57Micmac rough-water canoe, Bay Chaleur. (Photo H. V. Henderson, West Bathurst, N.B.)[66]
58Micmac rough-water sailing canoe, Bay Chaleur. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)[66]
59Drawing: Details of Micmac canoes, including mast and sail.[67]
60Micmac canoe, Bathurst, N.B. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)[68]
61Micmac woman gumming seams of canoe, Bathurst, N.B., 1913. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)[69]
62Lines of 2½-fathom Malecite river canoe, 19th century. Old form with raking ends and much sheer.[71]
63Lines of old form of Malecite-Abnaki 2½-fathom ocean canoe of the Penobscots in the Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass.[72]
64Lines of large 3-fathom ocean canoe of the Passamaquoddy porpoise hunters.[73]
65Lines of old form of Passamaquoddy 2½-fathom ocean canoe.[74]
66Lines of Malecite racing canoe of 1888, showing V-shaped keel piece between sheathing and bark to form deadrise.[75]
67Lines of sharp-ended 2½-fathom Passamaquoddy hunting canoe, for use on tidal river.[76]
68Lines of Malecite 2½-fathom St. Lawrence River canoe, probably a hybrid model.[77]
69Lines of Malecite 2½-fathom river canoe of 1890 from the Rivière du Loup region.[78]
70Lines of Modern (1895) 2½-fathom Malecite St. John River canoe.[79]
71Drawing: Malecite canoe details, gear, and gunwale decorations.[80]
72Drawing: Malecite canoe details, stem profiles, paddles, sail rig, and salmon spear.[81]
73Lines and decoration reconstructed from a very old model of a St. John River ancient woods, or pack, canoe.[81]
74Lines of last known Passamaquoddy decorated ocean canoe to be built (1898).[82]
75Drawing: Malecite canoe details and decorations.[83]
76Sketches: Wulegessis decorations.[84]-85
77Photo: End decorations, Passamaquoddy canoe.[86]
78Photo: End decorations, Passamaquoddy canoe.[87]
79Photo: Passamaquoddy decorated canoe.[87]
80Lines of 2-fathom St. Francis canoe of about 1865[89]
81Lines of "14-foot" St. Francis canoe of about 1910[90]
82Lines of 2½-fathom low-ended St. Francis canoe.[91]
83Lines of St. Francis-Abnaki canoe for open water, a type that became extinct before 1890. From Adney's drawings of a canoe formerly in the Museum of Natural History.[92]
84Photo: Model of a St. Francis-Abnaki canoe under construction.[93]
85Photo: St. Francis-Abnaki canoe.[93]
86A 15-foot Beothuk canoe of Newfoundland (Sketch by Adney.)[95]
87Lines based on Adney's reconstruction of 15-foot Beothuk canoe.[97]
88Montagnais crooked canoe. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)[100]
89Birch-bark crooked canoe, Ungava Cree. (Smithsonian Institution photo.)[101]
90Lines of 3-fathom Nascapee canoe, eastern Labrador.[102]
91Lines of 2-fathom Montagnais canoe of southern Labrador and Quebec.[102]
92Lines of 2½-fathom crooked canoe of the Ungava Peninsula.[103]
93Lines of hybrid-model 2-fathom Nascapee canoe.[103]
94Eastern Cree crooked canoe of rather moderate sheer and rocker. (Canadian Pacific Railway Company photo.)[104]
95Photo: Straight and crooked canoes, eastern Cree.[105]
96Montagnais canvas-covered crooked canoe under construction. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)[106]
97Sketch: Fiddlehead of scraped bark on bow and stern of a Montagnais birch-bark canoe at Seven Islands, Que., 1915.[107]
98Sketch: Disk of colored porcupine quills decorating canoe found at Namaquagon, Que., 1898.[107]
99Fleet of 51 birch-bark canoes of the Têtes de Boule Indians, assembled at the Hudson's Bay Company post, Grand Lake Victoria, Procession Sunday, August 1895. (Photo, Post-Factor L. A. Christopherson.)[108]
100Photo: Têtes de Boule canoe.[109]
101Photo: Têtes de Boule canoes.[110]
102Lines of 1½-fathom Têtes de Boule hunting canoe.[111]
103Lines of 2½-fathom Têtes de Boule canoe, with construction details.[111]
104Lines of 2-fathom Têtes de Boule hunting canoe.[112]
105Photo: Old Algonkin canoe.[113]
106Lines of 2½-fathom old model, Ottawa River, Algonkin canoe.[114]
107Photo: Models made by Adney of Algonkin and Ojibway stem-pieces.[115]
108Lines of light, fast 2-fathom hunting canoe of the old Algonkin model.[116]
109Lines of hybrid 2½- and 2-fathom Algonkin canoes.[117]
110Lines of 2-fathom Algonkin hunter's canoe, without headboards.[118]
111Photo: Algonkin canoe, old type.[119]
112Photo: Algonkin "Wabinaki Chiman"[120]
113Algonkin canoe decorations, Golden Lake, Ont.[121]
114Lines of 2-fathom Ojibway hunter's canoe, built in 1873[123]
115Lines of 3-fathom Ojibway old model rice-harvesting canoe and 2-fathom hunter's canoe.[124]
116Lines of 3-fathom Ojibway freight canoe.[124]
117Lines of 2½-fathom Ojibway, old form, canoe and a 16-foot long-nose Cree-Ojibway canoe.[125]
118Eastern Ojibway canoe, old form. (Canadian Pacific Railway photo.)[126]
119Photo: Ojibway Long-Nose canoe, Rainy Lake District.[126]
120Lines of 2-fathom Ojibway hunter's canoe, 1849 and long-nose Minnesota Ojibway rice-harvesting canoe.[127]
121Photos: Canoe building, Lac Seul, Canada, 1918[128]-129
122Long Lake Ojibway long-nose canoe. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)[130]
123Photo: Ojibway 19-foot canoe with 13 Indians aboard (1913)[131]
124Lines of 2½-fathom western Cree canoe, Winisk River district, northwest of James Bay.[133]
125Lines of a 6-fathom fur-trade canoe of the early 19th century.[134]
126Inboard profile of a 6-fathom fur-trade canoe, and details of construction, fitting, and decoration.[135]
127Lines of small 3-fathom north canoe of the Têtes de Boule model.[136]
128Photo: Models of fur-trade canoes.[137]
129"Fur-Trade Maître Canot With Passengers." From an oil painting by Hopkins (Public Archives of Canada photo).[138]
130"Bivouac in Expedition in Hudson's Bay Canoe." From an oil painting by Hopkins (Public Archives of Canada photo).[139]
131Ojibway 3-fathom fur-trade canoe, a cargo-carrying type, marked by cut-under end profiles, that was built as late as 1894.[139]
132Lines of a 5-fathom fur-trade canoe, Grand Lake Victoria Post, Hudson's Bay Company.[140]
133"Hudson's Bay Canoe Running the Rapids." From an oil painting by Hopkins (Public Archives of Canada photo).[141]
134"Repairing the Canoe." From an oil painting by Hopkins (Public Archives of Canada photo).[142]
135Lines of a 4½-fathom Hudson's Bay Company "North Canoe," built by Crees near James Bay, mid-19th century.[143]
136Photo: 5-fathom fur-trade canoe from Brunswick House, a Hudson's Bay Company post.[144]
137Fur-trade canoes on the Missinaibi River, 1901. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)[145]
138Photo: Fur-trade canoe brigade from Christopherson's Hudson's Bay Company post, about 1885.[146]
139Forest rangers, Lake Timagami, Ontario. (Canadian Pacific Railway Company photo.)[147]
140Photo: Models made by Adney of fur-trade canoe stem-pieces.[149]
141Photo: Models by Adney of fur-trade canoe stem-pieces.[151]
142Portaging a 4½-fathom fur-trade canoe, about 1902, near the head of the Ottawa River. (Canadian Pacific Railway Company photo.)[152]
143Decorations, fur-trade canoes (Watercolor sketch by Adney.)[153]
144Lines of 2-fathom Chipewyan hunter's canoe.[155]
145Lines of 2½-fathom Chipewyan and 3-fathom Dogrib cargo, or family, canoes.[156]
146Lines of 3-fathom Slavey and 2½-fathom Algonkin-type Athabascan plank-stem canoes.[157]
147Lines of Eskimo kayak-form birch-bark canoe from Alaskan Coast.[159]
148Lines of Athabascan hunting canoes of the kayak form.[160]
149Lines of extinct forms of Loucheux and bateau-form canoes, reconstructed from old models.[161]
150Lines of kayak-form canoes of the Alaskan Eskimos and Canadian Athabascan Indians.[163]
151Lines of kayak-form canoe of British Columbia and upper Yukon valley.[164]
152Construction of kayak-form canoe of the lower Yukon, showing rigid bottom frame. (Smithsonian Institution photo.)[165]
153Photo: Model of an extinct form of Athabascan type birch-bark canoe, of British Columbia. In Peabody Museum, Harvard University.[167]
154Lines of sturgeon-nose bark canoe of the Kutenai and Shuswap.[169]
155Ojibway canoe construction. (Canadian Geological Survey photos.)[170]-171
156Photo: Indians with canoe at Alert Bay, on Cormorant Island, B. C.[173]
157Eighteenth-century lines drawing of a kayak, from Labrador or southern Baffin Island.[175]
158Western Alaskan umiak with eight women paddling, Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, 1936. (Photo by Henry B. Collins.)[177]
159Western Alaskan umiak being beached, Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, 1936. (Photo by Henry B. Collins.)[177]
160Repairing umiak frame at St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, 1930. (Photo by Henry B. Collins.)[178]
161Eskimo woman splitting walrus hide to make umiak cover, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, 1930. (Photo by Henry B. Collins.)[178]
162Fitting split walrus-hide cover to umiak at St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, 1930. (Photo by Henry B. Collins.)[179]
163Outboard motor installed on umiak, Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, 1936. (Photo by Henry B. Collins.)[179]
164Launching umiak in light surf, Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, 1936. (Photo by Henry B. Collins.)[179]
165Umiaks on racks, in front of village on Little Diomede Island, July 30, 1936. (Photo by Henry B. Collins.)[181]
166Umiak covered with split walrus hide, Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska. (Photo by Henry B. Collins.)[183]
167Lines of small umiak for walrus hunting, west coast of Alaska. 1888-89[184]
168Umiaks near Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, showing walrus hide cover and lacing. (Photo by Henry B. Collins.)[185]
169Lines of umiak, west coast of Alaska, King Island, 1886[186]
170Making the blind seam: two stages of method used by the Eskimo to join skins together.[186]
171Lines of north Alaskan whaling umiak of about 1890[187]
172Lines of Baffin Island umiak, 1885. Drawn from model and detailed measurements of a single boat.[188]
173Lines of east Greenland umiak, drawn from measurements taken off by a U.S. Army officer in 1945.[189]
174Frame of kayak, Nunivak Island, Alaska. (Photo by Henry B. Collins.)[191]
175Frame of kayak at Nunivak Island, Alaska, 1927. (Photo by Henry B. Collins.)[193]
176Lines of Koryak kayak, drawn from damaged kayak in the American Museum of Natural History, 1948.[195]
177Lines of Kodiak Island kayak, 1885, in U.S. National Museum.[196]
178Lines of Aleutian kayak, Unalaska, 1894, in U.S. National Museum.[196]
179Lines of kayak from Russian Siberia, 2-hole Aleutian type, in Washington State Historical Society and Museum. Taken off by John Heath, 1962.[197]
180Lines of Nunivak Island kayak, Alaska, 1889, in U.S. National Museum.[198]
181Lines of King Island kayak, Alaska, 1888, in U.S. National Museum.[198]
182Lines of Norton Sound kayak, Alaska, 1889, in U.S. National Museum.[198]
183Nunivak Island kayak with picture of mythological water monster Palriayuk painted along gunwale. (Photo by Henry B. Collins.)[199]
184Photo: Nunivak Island kayak in U.S. National Museum.[199]
185Western Alaskan kayak, Cape Prince of Wales, 1936. (Photo by Henry B. Collins.)[200]
186Lines of Kotzebue Sound kayak, in Mariners' Museum.[201]
187Lines of Point Barrow kayak, Alaska, 1888, in U.S. National Museum.[201]
188Lines of Mackenzie Delta kayak, in Museum of the American Indian.[201]
189Photo: Kayak from Point Barrow, Alaska, in U.S. National Museum.[202]
190Photo: Cockpit of kayak from Point Barrow.[202]
191Lines of kayak in U.S. National Museum.[203]
192Lines of kayak from Coronation Gulf, Canada.[203]
193Lines of Caribou Eskimo kayak, Canada, in American Museum of Natural History.[203]
194Lines of Netsilik Eskimo kayak, King William Island, Canada, in the American Museum of Natural History.[203]
195Lines of old kayak from vicinity of Southampton Island, Canada.[205]
196Lines of Baffin Island kayak, from Cape Dorset, Canada, in the Museum of the American Indian.[205]
197Lines of kayak from north Labrador, Canada, in the Museum of the American Indian.[207]
198Lines of Labrador kayak, Canada, in the U.S. National Museum.[207]
199Lines of north Greenland kayak, in the Museum of the American Indian.[207]
200Lines of north Greenland kayak, in the Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass.[207]
201Photo: Profile of Greenland kayak from Disko Bay, in the National Museum.[208]
202Photo: Deck of Greenland kayak from Disko Bay.[208]
203Photo: Cockpit of Greenland kayak from Disko Bay.[209]
204Photo: Bow view of Greenland kayak from Disko Bay.[209]
205Lines of northwestern Greenland kayak, in the U.S. National Museum.[210]
206Lines of southwestern Greenland kayak, 1883, in the U.S. National Museum.[210]
207Lines of southwestern Greenland kayak, in the Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass.[210]
208Lines of south Greenland kayak, in the American Museum of Natural History.[211]
209Lines of Malecite and Iroquois temporary canoes.[214]
210Photo: Model of hickory-bark canoe under construction, in the Mariner's Museum.[217]
211Sketch: Detail of thwart used in Malecite temporary spruce-bark canoe.[217]
212Iroquois temporary elm-bark canoe, after a drawing of 1849.[218]
213Large moosehide canoe of upper Gravel River, Mackenzie valley. (Photo, George M. Douglas.)[221]
214Sketch: Standard Greenland roll.[224]
215Sketch: Critical stage of a capsize recovery.[225]
216Sketch: Hand positions used with the standard Greenland roll.[226]
217Sketch: Kayak rescue, bow-grab method.[226]
218Sketch: Kayak rescue, paddle-grab method.[226]
219Preparing for demonstration of Eskimo roll, Igdlorssuit, West Greenland. (Photo by Kenneth Taylor.)[227]
220Getting aboard kayak. (Photo by Kenneth Taylor.)[228]
221Fully capsized kayak. (Photo by Kenneth Taylor.)[228]
222Emerging from roll. (Photo by Kenneth Taylor.)[229]
223Emerging from roll. (Photo by Kenneth Taylor.)[229]
224Righting the kayak. (Photo by Kenneth Taylor.)[229]

The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America