WATERMAN—CANOES PL. V
D.—The “Shovel-nose Canoe” (τL´αι)
This type of canoe is called the “shovel-nose” because it is cut off square at bow and stern and the hull scoops forward like a shovel. The Songish visited by Boas have the same term, t1’lai, but the model pictured by Boas has a configuration somewhat different in certain details from the Puget Sound specimens seen. On the sound, the boat is hewn from one piece, while the Songish are said to add on the flattened end in the form of a separate plank. In spite of its shape the “shovel-nose” is in appearance anything but clumsy. It is excellently designed for a special purpose. A man may stand at the tip-end of bow or stern, and push with a pole, in shallow water. The people also who live up the rivers depend on this type of canoe for the spearing of salmon. When the fish are running in the rivers, one man paddles in the stern while a companion stands at ease out on the extreme end of the prow, with his spear poised ready for fish. His position there is ideal for striking salmon, since he lunges at fish almost directly under his feet. The bow-end of this boat is more slender than the stern. This type of boat is useful only in quiet waters. A characteristic piece of equipment is the canoe pole, he´Δqalsιd. Such a canoe is fine for sandbanks and shoals where the heavy Chinook type, with its features designed for protection against waves, is largely useless. Far up the rivers no canoes other than the shovel-nose are seen. The “salt-water” people, or “xwaldja´bc,” relate with amusement that “forest-dwellers,” or La´labιw, that is, the people living up the rivers, have only one word for canoe. “If it is a sdΔ´χωιL, or if it is a sti´waL, or even if it is a big αο´τχς, they call it a ‘shovel-nose,’ just the same.”
Some of these “fresh-water” Indians some years ago came voyaging down to Port Washington inlet, near the navy yard at Bremerton, in a shovel-nose canoe. In trying to negotiate the channel during a breeze and a change of tide, their canoe, which was not designed for such operations, filled and sank under their feet, and they lost their lives.
WATERMAN—CANOES PL. VI