Figure 68
Malecite 2½-Fathom St. Lawrence River Canoe, probably a hybrid model. The high ends show a western influence.
The outside of the canoe was painted red, the inside was a pale yellow, the gunwales and middle portions of the thwarts were cobalt blue, the ends of the thwarts were red. The wulegessis was blue, and the "canoe mark" was a painted representation of the spread eagle of the United States Seal, the border being in black and white and the eagle in black, yellow, and white, holding a brown branch with green leaves. The whole panel was outlined in red. On the side of the canoe, near the stern, was a white swallowtail pennant on which is lettered "Frenchmans Bay" in black capital letters. This canoe was used for fishing and also for porpoise and seal hunting.
The construction employed to form the V-bottom in a birch-bark canoe can be seen to have been done in two ways; that described on page [76] is undoubtedly the method used in prehistoric times, since laborious forming of a V keel-piece in the sheathing, using stone scrapers, would be avoided. The V-bottom, it should be noted, usually appears in canoes used in open waters, as this form tends to run straight under paddle, in spite of a side wind, and thus requires the minimum of steering to hold it on its course. It was this characteristic, too, that made the V-bottom suitable for the racing canoe on the St. John River, since stopping the stroke momentarily to steer diminishes the driving power of the stern paddler.
The various river canoes of the Malecite, built to the modern low, rounded-end profiles, or to the short-radii and straight-line forms, held rather closely to the same lines, that is, sharp ends with a rather flat bottom amidships and an easy bilge. Some of the canoes retained the characteristic tumble-home, but others had nearly vertical sides or the curve of the bilge was carried so high that it ended at the gunwales.
Figure 69
Malecite 2½-Fathom River Canoe of 1890 from the Rivière du Loup region. Canoes in this area had straight stems and sharp lines from at least as early as 1857.
On the St. Lawrence there was apparently a canoe having rather peaked ends as well as the rather straight-stemmed, low-ended type. A St. Lawrence River canoe found in the Chateau de Ramezay and built sometime before 1867 provides an example of the rather high-peaked ends. The canoe, as illustrated on page [77], has a well-rounded bilge working into a very round tumble-home above and into a rather flat bottom below, the tumble-home being carried into the extreme ends, so that the headboards are rather wide. The ends round up rather quickly and then continue up to the sheer in a very slight curve, having a very moderate tumble-home near the sheer. The latter follows somewhat the characteristic sheer of the old Malecite canoes, but the straight portion just inboard of the ends is much shorter, so that the quick upsweep of the sheer begins nearer the ends and thus appears somewhat more pronounced.
The construction is in the usual manner. The rocker of the bottom is 2 inches. The ribs are wider amidships than near the ends. The outwale is rounded on the outboard face so that the cap is slightly narrower than the thickness of inner gunwale and outwale combined. The headboard is rather unusual, however, as it is not bellied but stands straight and vertical. The lashing at the upper portion of the stems is the crossed stitch, below it is spiral. The gunwale groups are made up of six passes through the bark, and the spaces between groups are about 2½ inches. The side panels are sewn with the harness stitch. The canoe is 16 feet long overall and 14 feet 5 inches inside the gunwales; the extreme beam amidships is 37 inches and inside the gunwales 32 inches. The depth amidships is about 13 inches and the height of the ends 25 inches, with 2 inches of rocker at the headboards. This canoe, retaining the high ends, marks the transition from the old form to the new.