For use in open water these canoes were often fitted with a blanket square-sail. The sapling serving as a temporary mast stood in a hole in the second thwart, and was stepped on a block, or board, pegged or lashed to the ribs.
The sheathing of all canoes of this class was of the same form—wide, short strakes amidships, narrower short strakes afore and abaft. The midship strakes were often quite short and their ends were over the longer end strakes. The end strakes were, of course, tapered toward the stems. The placing of the strakes was often irregular, with the result that the butts were somewhat staggered. Some canoes had four strakes to the length, but three appears to have been most common.
The large canoe was employed on the large lakes of the Mackenzie region; smaller canoes of the same general form, 14 to 16 feet in length and 30 to 40 inches in beam, were used on the large rivers and streams. In the smaller canoes of this class, the flare of the topsides was often less than in the larger craft. The Cree in this area, particularly to the south of Great Slave Lake, also employed the Athabascan form. This class of canoe, in general, appears to have been strongly affected by outside influence; consequently this description must be understood to cover existing canoes and models, not pure Athabascan canoe building.
The usual construction methods were employed in building this class of canoe; the stakes around the building frame were set vertically, and when the bark cover was lashed to the gunwale members (inwale and outwale together) the gunwales were spread and the thwarts inserted in their tenons. Skill was required in preshaping the gunwale members, which, as in the fur-trade canoes, had to be arched in sheer amidships to allow for the change in sheer caused by spreading the gunwales in construction. The building bed was also arched at midlength to allow for the lifting of the ends that occurred in spreading the gunwales with the bark cover attached.
A typical large Chipewyan canoe of this class was 21 feet 4 inches in overall length, 43 inches beam and 14 inches in depth amidships. A smaller Dogrib canoe of the same class was 14 feet 7 inches in overall length, 31¼ inches beam, and 11½ inches in depth. However, these smaller canoes appear to have been relatively uncommon, and the average large canoe was about 20 feet long.
Kayak-Form Canoe
The kayak-form canoe was widely employed in the Northwest and was highly developed in both model and construction. It was essentially a portage and hunting craft, ranging in length from 12 to 18 feet and in beam from about 24 to 27 inches, with a depth between 9 and 12 inches. In areas where the kayak form was used as a family and cargo canoe, the length would be as great as 20 or 25 feet and the beam might reach 30 inches. Except in the family or cargo canoe, which had none, there was usually some decking at the ends, most of it forward. Some tribal groups built the kayak form with its greatest beam at midlength, but the most common form had its greatest beam abaft midlength and its greatest depth there likewise. Many of the kayak forms had unlike end profiles, so that there was a distinct bow in appearance as well as in fact.
There was much variety in end profile, and the canoes of each tribal group were usually identifiable by this means. The kayak-form bark canoes of the lower Yukon and neighboring streams had a short overhang, formed in a curved rake and alike or very nearly so, at bow and stern. On the upper Yukon and adjoining streams the canoes had much rake at both ends, the rake being straight from the bottom outward for some distance, then curving rather markedly. The bow rake was usually greatest, but the stern might be higher by one or two inches. The bottom was without rocker, being straight or even slightly hogged in most of these canoes. The sheer was straight to the point where the rake began, then rose in a easy sweep to the ends. The end decks on the upper Yukon canoes were short, those on lower Yukon canoes were much longer; on the latter the bow deck was nearly a third the length of the canoe, on the former about a fifth. In the Mackenzie Basin, the kayak-form canoes had a moderate rake, curved in profile, at bow and stern and a rather low stem-head; the depth at the stern was noticeably greater than at the bow, and the deck forward was commonly a little less than a fourth the length of the canoe. In these canoes the greatest beam in most cases was abaft midlength, and this was also true of the lower Yukon canoes. On the upper Yukon and in some of these canoes on the lower Mackenzie, the greatest beam was amidships and the depth at bow and stern were equal.
Figure 147