So much for the general resemblance. The facts of distribution make the idea of relationship much more plausible. It is worthy of remark that in California south of Humboldt bay there are no dugout canoes at all. Northward, however, dugouts are in use among all tribes as far as Puget sound. Moreover, in the case of some, at least, of the intervening tribes the shovel-nose or square-ended type of dugout occurs. This is true of the tribes about Klamath lake, for instance, as shown by a specimen of their canoes collected by Dr Barrett, now in the Museum of the University of California. Information on this point is unsatisfactory, for in this intervening area few observers have taken the pains to note in detail what kinds of canoes were used. This is true of much of Oregon, even on the coast. Vancouver says of the Indians of Port Orford that “their canoes, calculated to carry about eight people, were rudely wrought out of a single tree; their shape much resembled a butche1’s tray, and seemed very unfit for a sea voyage or any distant expedition.”[17] This seems almost certainly to indicate that he saw craft of a shovel-nose type. We can find few other statements on this matter in the literature. On Columbia river, as shown by the statements of Boas,[18] on the coast of Washington as illustrated by the photographs of Curtis,[19] on Puget sound and northward to an unknown distance, as observed by the present writers, shovel-nose canoes are in general use. The bare facts, as we have them, seem to be most readily explained on the assumption that one type of dugout canoe, of wide distribution on the North Pacific, has spread also as far south as the Yurok and neighboring tribes in northern California. The increased complexity of the design as found among the Yurok and their neighbors, as shown especially in the ornamentation, is possibly explainable by the fact that these tribes exhibit a distinctly higher culture in many respects than do their neighbors to the south, the east, or the north. For some reason, in the region about the mouth of Klamath river a secondary center of high culture has developed. It is not unlikely that this has produced the peculiar traits of their canoe.
It is noticeable also that there seems to be a gradual modification of all types of canoes as we move southward toward California. On Puget sound, five canoes out of six show a lift in the gunwales toward bow and stern. On the coast south of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, as shown by the photographs of Curtis,[20] canoes other than the shovel-nose have an abrupt “raise” at the prow, but amidships and at the stern they are “flush,” the gunwales forming a straight horizontal line. Apparently this arrangement might be considered as an approach to the California type of canoe, where the gunwales are perfectly flat, without any lift at either end.
If our inference is correct, it is apparent that, as we travel southward from Columbia river, five of the North Pacific types become modified and finally cease to be used. It has not been possible to find any evidence in the literature that indicates the point where the distribution of any of these models ceases.
The use of dugout canoes extends, of course, up the rivers which flow toward the Northwest coast. Thus the Wishram at the falls of the Columbia use the “Chinook” model described in the present paper, and other dugout models besides. George Gibbs stated that the shovel-nose type is the only one used on the Columbia above The Dalles.[21] Curtis has one picture of a dugout canoe used by the Nez Percés.[22] It is of the shovel-nose type (though shockingly clumsy, heavy, and ill-made—merely a log roughly shaped and somewhat hollowed out). Chamberlain states[23] that the Kootenay have a dugout type of craft, of what shape we do not know. It seems to be impossible to trace in detail the distribution of the shovel-nose in this direction on the basis of any material now in print. We may speak with certainty, therefore, only of the region immediately about Seattle, where the present authors have had a chance to make observations. In this vicinity the only type of canoe used on the upper courses of the streams is the shovel-nose.
Concerning the distribution, in a northerly direction, of these types of canoes, little can be said at the present time. As remarked above, the Kwakiutl use in place of the αο´τχς, a great sea-going canoe of somewhat different and more complicated model, and much more elaborately ornamented.
The evolution of canoes probably took place among the people somewhat northward of Puget Sound peoples, whose general level of culture is higher. Going southward from the Kwakiutl, say, canoes are steadily less and less specialized, until we come to the tribes of northern California with their one model. South of the California tribes just mentioned, these influences are not apparent at all. Concerning the canoes of the coast north of the Kwakiutl, we can get at the present time no information. It is not known whether several types are in use, or only one. The pictures of Curtis, which might tell the story, are not nearly so useful as they are in other cases, since he photographed very few canoes in this area; possibly because he found so much else to picture.
CONCLUSIONS
The situation as regards canoes in the area under discussion may be essentially like that respecting types of pottery in the Southwest, as presented by Nelson.[24] He has shown in a most interesting way that the archaic types of pottery are also the types with the widest distribution. As we pass from center to periphery of the cultural region which he discusses, we encounter types of pottery which are more and more primitive. One striking difference between Nelso1’s problem and the present one is that a great mass of evidence has been assembled in the Southwest, while in regard to canoes on the Northwest coast the data are largely lacking. Another difference is that Nelson carried out extensive investigations in the field, while the present discussion is based largely on scattered references in the literature. Nelso1’s conclusions, to be brief, are based on knowledge and facts, while our own must be in the last degree inferential.
The idea seems plausible, however, that the original type of canoe on the Northwest coast was the shovel-nose. Several considerations point in this direction. The shovel-nose is the simplest model. This raises a logical presumption that it may well be the oldest. It is associated with rivers, being of use only in streams and other quiet water. This also suggests that it may represent an early type. It may be regarded as certain that the first man or the first group who experimented with navigation on the North Pacific coast, experimented on the rivers, and not on the high seas. This would seem to imply that the river craft would be the first to reach perfection. The sea-going “Chinook” type, and models showing points of similarity to it, are in all human probability later in origin. When we consider the distribution of the various types of canoes, we emerge for a moment from the jungle of speculation into the field of evidence, though that evidence is scanty. It is a fact that the shovel-nose type of canoe is of wider distribution than the other types. It is the only type found in the marginal regions to the east and south of the area of typical North Pacific Coast culture. Thus is raised the presumption that it represents an older type of craft than do the other models.
The connection between northern California and the North Pacific area, which seems to be exemplified in the distribution of dugout canoes, is also a matter of some importance. Ultimately it will doubtless be proved by a careful comparison, in the two areas, of houses, geographical notions, money and financial institutions, and other matters, that the mode of life of the tribes in extreme northern California is a direct offshoot of the type of culture found in the Northwest.