How to Select a Birch-Bark Canoe
The Indian-made birch-bark canoe costs about $1 a foot and is fashioned of birch bark over an ash, or spruce, frame. The bark is not nailed to the frame, but is sewed together with boiled spruce, or tamarack, roots, split to a suitable size. To give the proper shape to the canoe a double row of stakes are firmly planted in the ground and the spruce frame is sprung between them. The bark is put on inside out, and the work of sewing together is done while the bark is fresh, or immediately after it is stripped from the tree. The seams are afterward made water-tight by smearing well with spruce gum, which hardens quickly and makes a fairly good joint. The Indian model is a good one so far as the freeboard, width of beam, and flaring stems are concerned, but the curved bottom makes it extremely cranky and dangerous for the novice to handle. Be sure to see that the birch-bark canoe is fashioned with a flat, straight bottom, which makes the craft steadier and less inclined to veer about under the stroke of the paddle. In an expert’s hands the round bottom will be found a decided advantage, making it faster to paddle and more easily turned and steered in swift and rough water. Many prefer the three-piece bottom, but the bottom made of a single piece of bark is stronger and less likely to open up and leak. All birch canoes will warp and twist somewhat, and it is practically impossible to find one that is straight and true. The birch-bark canoe has many limitations and not a few weaknesses, but if one has the good luck to find a good one, and treats it fairly, it will prove a safe and dry craft for many hundreds of miles’ travel. Of course, one must carry a kettle of pitch for making repairs, and be content to travel somewhat slower than with modern canoes, but this may not be a disadvantage. Birch canoes have no seats, as the Indian kneels when paddling, but a low thwart, or seat, is easy to put in at the bow and stern, if one prefers the white man’s paddling position.