The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America, by Edwin Tappan Adney and Howard Irving Chapelle

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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM

BULLETIN 230

WASHINGTON, D. C.

1964

MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY

The
Bark Canoes and Skin Boats
of
North America

Edwin Tappan Adney
and
Howard I. Chapelle

Curator of Transportation

B031222CA

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON, D. C.
1964

Publications of the United States National Museum

The scholarly and scientific publications of the United States National Museum include two series, Proceedings of the United States National Museum and United States National Museum Bulletin.

In these series the Museum publishes original articles and monographs dealing with the collections and work of its constituent museums—The Museum of Natural History and the Museum of History and Technology—setting forth newly acquired facts in the fields of Anthropology, Biology, History, Geology, and Technology. Copies of each publication are distributed to libraries, to cultural and scientific organizations, and to specialists and others interested in the different subjects.

The Proceedings, begun in 1878, are intended for the publication, in separate form, of shorter papers from the Museum of Natural History. These are gathered in volumes, octavo in size, with the publication date of each paper recorded in the table of contents of the volume.

In the Bulletin series, the first of which was issued in 1875, appear longer, separate publications consisting of monographs (occasionally in several parts) and volumes in which are collected works on related subjects. Bulletins are either octavo or quarto in size, depending on the needs of the presentation. Since 1902 papers relating to the botanical collections of the Museum of Natural History have been published in the Bulletin series under the heading Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, and since 1959, in Bulletins titled "Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology," have been gathered shorter papers relating to the collections and research of that Museum.

This work, the result of cooperation with the Mariners' Museum, the Stefansson Library, the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, and the American Museum of Natural History, forms number 230 of the Bulletin series.

Frank A. Taylor

Director, United States National Museum

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON: 1964

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402—Price $6.75

Special acknowledgment

Is here gratefully made to The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia, under whose auspices was prepared and with whose cooperation is here published the part of this work based on the Adney papers; also to the late Vilhjalmur Stefansson, for whose Encyclopedia Arctica was written the chapter on Arctic skin boats.

Contents

Illustrations

The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America

INTRODUCTION

Figure 1

Fur-Trade Canoe on the Missinaibi River, 1901. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)

The bark canoes of the North American Indians, particularly those of birch bark, were among the most highly developed of manually propelled primitive watercraft. Built with Stone Age tools from materials available in the areas of their use, their design, size, and appearance were varied so as to create boats suitable to the many and different requirements of their users. The great skill exhibited in their design and construction shows that a long period of development must have taken place before they became known to white men.

The Indian bark canoes were most efficient watercraft for use in forest travel; they were capable of being propelled easily with a single-bladed paddle. This allowed the paddler, unlike the oarsman, to face the direction of travel, a necessity in obstructed or shoal waters and in fast-moving streams. The canoes, being light, could be carried overland for long distances, even where trails were rough or nonexistent. Yet they could carry heavy loads in shallow water and could be repaired in the forest without special tools.

Bark canoes were designed for various conditions: some for use in rapid streams, some for quiet waters, some for the open waters of lakes, some for use along the coast. Most were intended for portage in overland transportation as well. They were built in a variety of sizes, from small one-man hunting and fishing canoes to canoes large enough to carry a ton of cargo and a crew, or a war-party, or one or more families moving to new habitations. Some canoes were designed so that they could be used, turned bottom up, for shelter ashore.

The superior qualities of the bark canoes of North America are indicated by the white man's unqualified adoption of the craft. Almost as soon as he arrived in North America, the white man learned to use the canoe, without alteration, for wilderness travel. Much later, when the original materials used in building were no longer readily available, canvas was substituted for bark, and nails for the lashings and sewing; but as long as manual propulsion was used, the basic models of the bark canoes were retained. Indeed, the models and the proportions used in many of these old bark canoes are retained in the canoes used today in the wildernesses of northern Canada and Alaska, and the same styles may be seen in the canoes used for pleasure in the summer resorts of Europe and America. The bark canoe of North America shares with the Eskimo kayak the distinction of being one of the few primitive craft of which the basic models are retained in the boats of civilized man.

It may seem strange, then, that the literature on American bark canoes is so limited. Many possible explanations for this might be offered. One is that the art of bark canoe building died early, as the Indians came into contact with the whites, before there was any attempt fully to record Indian culture. The bark canoe is fragile compared to the dugout. The latter might last hundreds of years submerged in a bog, but the bark canoe will not last more than a few decades. It is difficult, in fact, to preserve bark canoes in museums, for as they age and the bark becomes brittle, they are easily damaged in moving and handling.

Some small models made by Indians are preserved, but, like most models made by primitive men, these are not to any scale and do not show with equal accuracy all parts of the canoes they represent. They are, therefore, of value only when full-sized canoes of the same type are available for comparison, but this is too rarely the case with the American Indian bark canoes. Today the builders who might have added to our knowledge are long dead.

It might be said fairly that those who had the best opportunities to observe, including many whose profession it was to record the culture of primitive man, showed little interest in watercraft and have left us only the most meager descriptions. Even when the watercraft of the primitive man had obviously played a large part in his culture, we rarely find a record complete enough to allow the same accuracy of reproduction that obtains, say, for his art, his dress, or his pottery. Once lost, the information on primitive watercraft cannot, as a rule, be recovered.

However, as far as the bark canoes of North America are concerned, there was another factor. The student who became sufficiently interested to begin research soon discovered that one man was devoting his lifetime to the study of these craft; that, in a field with few documentary records and fewer artifacts, he had had opportunities for detailed examination not open to younger men; and that it was widely expected that this man would eventually publish his findings. Hence many, who might otherwise have carried on some research and writing, turned to other subjects. Practically, then, the whole field had been left to Edwin Tappan Adney.

Born at Athens, Ohio, in 1868, Edwin Tappan Adney was the son of Professor H. H. Adney, formerly a colonel in a volunteer regiment in the Civil War but then on the faculty of Ohio University. His mother was Ruth Shaw Adney. Edwin Tappan Adney did not receive a college education, but he managed to pursue three years' study of art with The Art Students' League of New York. Apparently he was interested in ornithology as well as in art, and spent much time in New York museums, where he met Ernest Thompson Seton and other naturalists. Being unable to afford more study in art school, he went on what was intended to be a short vacation, in 1887, to Woodstock, New Brunswick. There he became interested in the woods-life of Peter Joe, a Malecite Indian who lived in a temporary camp nearby. This life so interested the 19-year-old Ohioan that he turned toward the career of an artist-craftsman, recording outdoor scenes of the wilderness in pictures.

He undertook to learn the handicrafts of the Indian, in order to picture him and his works correctly, and lengthened his stay. In 1889, Adney and Peter Joe each built a birch-bark canoe, Adney following and recording every step the Indian made during construction. The result Adney published, with sketches, in Harper's Young People magazine, July 29, 1890, and, in a later version, in Outing, May 1900. These, so far as is known, are the earliest detailed descriptions of a birch-bark canoe, with instructions for building one. Daniel Beard considered them the best, and with Adney's permission used the material in his Boating Book for Boys.

In 1897, Adney went to the Klondike as an artist and special correspondent for Harper's Weekly and The London Chronicle, to report on the gold-rush. He also wrote a book on his experience, Klondike Stampede, published in 1900. In 1899 he married Minnie Bell Sharp, of Woodstock, but by 1900 Adney was again in the Northwest, this time as special correspondent for Colliers magazine at Nome, Alaska, during the gold-rush of that year. On his return to New York, Adney engaged in illustrating outdoor scenes and also lectured for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 1908 he contributed to a Harper's Outdoor Book for Boys. From New York he removed to Montreal and became a citizen of Canada, entering the Canadian Army as a Lieutenant of Engineers in 1916. He was assigned to the construction of training models and was on the staff of the Military College, mustering out in 1919. He then made his home in Montreal, engaging in painting and illustrating. From his early years in Woodstock he had made a hobby of the study of birch-bark canoes, and while in Montreal he became honorary consultant to the Museum of McGill University, dealing with Indian lore. By 1925 Adney had assembled a great deal of material and, to clarify his ideas, he began construction of scale models of each type of canoe, carrying on a very extensive correspondence with Indians, factors and other employees (retired and active) of the Hudson's Bay Company, and with government agents on the Indian Reservations. He also made a number of expeditions to interview Indians. Possessing linguistic ability in Malecite, he was much interested in all the Indian languages; this helped him in his canoe studies.

Owing to personal and financial misfortunes, he and his wife (then blind) returned in the early 1930's to her family homestead in Woodstock, where Mrs. Adney died in 1937. Adney continued his work under the greatest difficulties, including ill-health, until his death, October 10, 1950. He did not succeed in completing his research and had not organized his collection of papers and notes for publication when he died.

Through the farsightedness of Frederick Hill, then director of The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia, Adney had, ten years before his death, deposited in the museum over a hundred of his models and a portion of his papers. After his death his son Glenn Adney cooperated in placing in The Mariners' Museum the remaining papers dealing with bark canoes, thus completing the "Adney Collection."

Frederick Hill's appreciation of the scope and value of the collection prompted him to seek my assistance in organizing this material with a view to publication. Though the Adney papers were apparently complete and were found, upon careful examination, to contain an immense amount of valuable information, they were in a highly chaotic state. At the request of The Mariners' Museum, I have assembled the pertinent papers and have compiled from Adney's research notes as complete a description as I could of bark canoes, their history, construction, decoration and use. I had long been interested in the primitive watercraft of the Americas, but I was one of those who had discontinued research on bark canoes upon learning of Adney's work. The little I had accomplished dealt almost entirely with the canoes of Alaska and British Columbia; from these I had turned to dugouts and to the skin boats of the Eskimo. Therefore I have faced with much diffidence the task of assembling and preparing the Adney papers for publication, particularly since it was not always clear what Adney had finally decided about certain matters pertaining to canoes. His notes were seldom arranged in a sequence that would enable the reader to decide which, of a number of solutions or opinions given, were Adney's final ones.

Adney's interest in canoes, as canoes, was very great, but his interest in anthropology led him to form many opinions about pre-Columbian migrations of Indian tribes and about the significance of the decorations used in some canoes. His papers contain considerable discussion of these matters, but they are in such state that only an ethnologist could edit and evaluate them. In addition, my own studies lead me to conclude that the mere examination of watercraft alone is insufficient evidence upon which to base opinions as far-reaching as those of Adney. Therefore I have not attempted to present in this work any of Adney's theories regarding the origin or ethnological significance of the canoes discussed. I have followed the same practice with those Adney papers which concern Indian language, some of which relate to individual tribal canoe types and are contained in the canoe material. (Most of his papers on linguistics are now in The Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.)

The strength and weaknesses of Adney's work, as shown in his papers, drawings, and models, seem to me to be fully apparent. That part dealing with the eastern Indians, with whom he had long personal contact, is by far the most voluminous and, perhaps, the most accurate. The canoes used by Indians west of the St. Lawrence as far as the western end of the Great Lakes and northward to the west side of Hudsons Bay are, with a few exceptions, covered in somewhat less detail, but the material nonetheless appears ample for our purpose. The canoes used in the Canadian Northwest, except those from the vicinity of Great Slave Lake, and in Alaska were less well described. It appears that Adney had relatively little opportunity to examine closely the canoes used in Alaska, during his visit there in 1900, and that he later was unable to visit those American museums having collections that would have helped him with regard to these areas. As a result, I have found it desirable to add my own material on these areas, drawn largely from the collections of American museums and from my notes on construction details.

An important part of Adney's work deals with the large canoes used in the fur trade. Very little beyond the barest of descriptions has been published and, with but few exceptions, contemporary paintings and drawings of these canoes are obviously faulty. Adney was fortunate enough to have been able to begin his research on these canoes while there were men alive who had built and used them. As a result he obtained information that would have been lost within, at most, the span of a decade. His interest was doubly keen, fortunately, for Adney not only was interested in the canoes as such, he also valued the information for its aid in painting historical scenes. As a result, there is hardly a question concerning fur trade canoes, whether of model, construction, decoration, or use, that is not answered in his material.

I have made every effort to preserve the results of Adney's investigations of the individual types in accurate drawings or in the descriptions in the text. It was necessary to redraw and complete most of Adney's scale drawings of canoes, for they were prepared for model-building rather than for publication. Where his drawings were incomplete, they could be filled in from his scale models and notes. It must be kept in mind that in drawing plans of primitive craft the draftsman must inevitably "idealize" the subject somewhat, since a drawing shows fair curves and straight lines which the primitive craft do not have in all cases. Also, the inboard profiles are diagrammatic rather than precise, because, in the necessary reduction of the full-size canoe to a drawing, this is the only way to show its "form" in a manner that can be interpreted accurately and that can be reproduced in a model or full size, as desired. It is necessary to add that, though most of the Adney plans were measured from full-size canoes, some were reconstructed from Indian models, builders' information, or other sources. Thanks to Adney's thorough knowledge of bark construction, the plans are highly accurate, but there are still chances for error, and these are discussed where they occur.

Although reconstruction of extinct canoe types is difficult, for the strange canoes of the Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland Adney appears to have solved some of the riddles posed by contemporary descriptions and the few grave models extant (the latter may have been children's toys). Whether or not his reconstructed canoe is completely accurate cannot be determined; at least it conforms reasonably well to the descriptions and models, and Adney's thorough knowledge of Indian craftsmanship gives weight to his opinions and conclusions. This much can be said: the resulting canoe would be a practical one and it fulfills very nearly all descriptions of the type known today.

Adney's papers and drawings dealing with the construction of bark canoes are most complete and valuable. So complete as to be almost a set of "how-to-do-it" instructions, they cover everything from the selection of materials and use of tools to the art of shaping and building the canoe. An understanding of these building instructions is essential to any sound examination of the bark canoes of North America, for they show the limitations of the medium and indicate what was and what was not reasonable to expect from the finished product.

In working on Adney's papers, it became obvious that this publication could not be limited to birch-bark canoes, since canoes built of other barks and even some covered with skins appear in the birch bark areas. Because of this, and to explain the technical differences between these and the birch canoes, skin-covered canoes have been included. I have also appended a chapter on Eskimo skin boats and kayaks. This material I had originally prepared for inclusion in the Encyclopedia Arctica, publication of which was cancelled after one volume had appeared. As a result, the present work now covers the native craft, exclusive of dugouts, of all North America north of Mexico.

In my opinion the value of the information gathered by Edwin Tappan Adney is well worth the effort that has been expended to bring it to its present form, and any merit that attaches to it belongs largely to Adney himself, whose long and painstaking research, carried on under severe personal difficulties, is the foundation of this study.

Howard Irving Chapelle Curator of Transportation, Museum of History and Technology

Chapter One
EARLY HISTORY

The development of bark canoes in North America before the arrival of the white men cannot satisfactorily be traced. Unlike the dugout, the bark canoe is too perishable to survive in recognizable form buried in a bog or submerged in water, so we have little or no visual evidence of very great age upon which to base sound assumptions.

Records of bark canoes, contained in the reports of the early white explorers of North America, are woefully lacking in detail, but they at least give grounds for believing that the bark canoes even then were highly developed, and were the product of a very long period of existence and improvement prior to the first appearance of Europeans.

The Europeans were most impressed by the fact that the canoes were built of bark reinforced by a light wooden frame. The speed with which they could be propelled by the Indians also caused amazement, as did their light weight and marked strength, combined with a great load-carrying capacity in shallow water. It is remarkable, however, that although bark canoes apparently aroused so much admiration among Europeans, so little of accurate and complete information appears in their writings.

With two notable exceptions, to be discussed later, early explorers, churchmen, travellers, and writers were generally content merely to mention the number of persons in a canoe. The first published account of variations in existing forms of the American bark canoe does not occur until 1724, and the first known illustration of a bark canoe accurate enough to indicate its tribal designation appeared only two years earlier. This fact makes any detailed examination of the early books dealing with North America quite unprofitable as far as precise information on bark canoes is concerned.

The first known reference by a Frenchman to the bark canoe is that of Jacques Cartier, who reported that he saw two bark canoes in 1535; he said the two carried a total of 17 men. Champlain was the first to record any definite dimensions of the bark canoes; he wrote that in 1603 he saw, near what is now Quebec, bark canoes 8 to 9 paces long and 1½ paces wide, and he added that they might transport as much as a pipe of wine yet were light enough to be carried easily by one man. If a pace is taken as about 30 inches, then the canoes would have been between 20 and 23 feet long, between 40 and 50 inches beam and capable of carrying about half a ton, English measurements. These were apparently Algonkin canoes. Champlain was impressed by the speed of the bark canoes; he reported that his fully manned longboat was passed by two canoes, each with two paddlers. As will be seen, he was perhaps primarily responsible for the rapid adoption of bark canoes by the early French in Canada.

The first English reference that has been found is in the records of Captain George Weymouth's voyage. He and his crew in 1603 saw bark canoes to the westward of Penobscot Bay, on what is now the coast of Maine. The English were impressed, just as Champlain had been, by the speed with which canoes having but three or four paddlers could pass his ship's boat manned with four oarsmen. Weymouth also speaks admiringly of the fine workmanship shown in the structure of the canoes.

When Champlain attacked the Iroquois, on what is now Lake Champlain, he found that these Indians had "oak" bark (more probably elm) canoes capable of carrying 10, 15, and 18 men. This would indicate that the maximum size of the Iroquois canoes was about 30 to 33 feet long. The illustrations in his published account indicate canoes about 30 feet long; but early illustrations of this kind were too often the product of the artist's imagination, just as were the delineations of the animals and plants of North America.

As an example of what may be deduced from other early French accounts, Champlain in 1615, with a companion and 12 Indians, embarked at La Chine in two bark canoes for a trip to the Great Lakes. He stated that the two canoes, with men and baggage aboard, were over-crowded. Taking one of these canoes as having 7 men and baggage aboard, it seems apparent that it was not much larger than the largest of the canoes Champlain had seen in 1603 on the St. Lawrence. But in 1672, Louis Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette traveled in two canoes, carrying a total of 5 French and 25 Indians—say 14 in one canoe and 16 in the other. These canoes, then, must have been at least 28 feet long over the gunwales, exclusive of the round of the ends, or about 30 feet overall. The Chevalier Henri de Tonti, one of La Salle's officers, mentions a canoe carrying 30 men—probably 14 paddlers on each side, a steersman, and a passenger or officer. Such a capacity might indicate a canoe about 40 feet over the gunwales, though this seems very long indeed; it is more probable that the canoe would be about 36 feet long.

Another of La Salle's officers, Baron de LaHontan, gave the first reasonably complete account that has been found of the size and character of a birch-bark canoe. This was written at Montreal June 29, 1684. After stating that he had seen at least a hundred bark canoes in his journeys, he said that birch-bark canoes ranged in length from 10 to 28 pieds and were capable of carrying from 2 to 14 persons. The largest, when carrying cargo, might be handled by three men and could carry 2,000 pounds of freight (20 quintals). These large canoes were safe and never upset. They were built of bark peeled in the winter; hot water was thrown on the bark to make it pliable, so that it could be rolled up after it was removed from the tree. The canoes were built of more than one piece of bark as a rule.

The large canoes, he reports, were 28 pieds long, 4½ pieds wide and 20 pouces deep, top of gunwale to top of frames on bottom. The last indicates "inside" measurement; in this the length would be over the gunwales, not overall, and the beam inside the gunwales, not extreme. He also says the canoes had a lining or sheathing of cedar "splints" or plank and, inside this, cedar ribs or frames. The bark was the thickness of an écu (this coin, a crown, was a little less than ⅛ inch thick), the sheathing the thickness of two écus, and the ribs of three. The ends of the ribs were pointed and these were seated in holes in the underside of the gunwales. There were 8 crosspieces (thwarts) between the gunwales (note: such a canoe would commonly have 9 thwarts; LaHontan may have erred here).

The canoes were convenient, he says, because of their great lightness and shallow draft, but they were easily damaged. Hence they had to be loaded and unloaded afloat and usually required repairs to the bark covers at the end of each day. They had to be staked down at night, so that a strong wind might not damage or blow them away; but this light weight permitted them to be carried with ease by two men, one at each end, and this suited them for use on the rivers of Canada, where rapids and falls made carrying frequently necessary. These canoes were of no value on the Lakes, LaHontan states, as they could not be used in windy weather; though in good weather they might cross lakes and might go four or five leagues on open water. The canoes carried small sails, but these could be used only with fair winds of moderate force. The paddlers might kneel, sit, or stand to paddle and pole the canoes. The paddle blade was 20 pouces long, 6 wide, and 4 lignes thick; the handle was of the diameter of a pigeon's egg and three pieds long. The paddlers also had a "setting pole," to pole the canoes in shoal water. The canoes were alike at both ends and cost 80 écus (LaHontan's cost 90), and would last not more than five or six years. The foregoing is but a condensed extract of LaHontan's lively account.

In translating LaHontan's measurements a pied is taken as 12.79 inches, a pouce as about 1⅛ inches. The French fathom, or brasse, as used in colonial Canada, was the length from finger-tip to finger-tip of the arms outstretched and so varied, but may be roughly estimated as about 64 inches; this was the "fathom" used later in classing fur-trade canoes for length. In English measurements his large canoe would have been about 30 feet long over the gunwales and, perhaps, almost 33 feet overall, 57½ inches beam inside the gunwales, or about 60 inches extreme beam. The depth inside would be 21 or 21¾ inches bottom to top of gunwale amidships. LaHontan also described the elm-bark canoes of the Iroquois as being large and wide enough to carry 30 paddlers, 15 on a side, sitting or standing. Here again a canoe about 40 feet long is indicated. He said that these elm-bark canoes were crude, heavy and slow, with low sides, so that once he and his men reached an open lake, he no longer feared pursuit by the Iroquois in these craft.

Figure 2

Page From a Manuscript of 1771, "Observations on Hudsons Bay," by Alexander Graham, Factor, now in the archives of the Hudson's Bay Company in London. The birch-bark canoe at the top, the kayak below, and the paddles are obviously drawn by one not trained to observe as an artist.

From the slight evidence offered in such records as these, it appears that the Indians may have had, when the Europeans first reached Canada, canoes at least as long as the 5-fathom or 5½-fathom canoe of later times. It appears also that these dimensions applied to the canoes of the Great Lakes area and perhaps to the elm-bark canoes of the Iroquois as well. Probably there were canoes as short as 10 feet, used as one-man hunting and fishing boats, and it is plainly evident that canoes between this length and about 24 feet were very common. The evidence in La Salle's time, in the last half of the seventeenth century, must be taken with some caution, as French influence on the size of large canoes may have by then come into play. The comparison between the maximum length of the Iroquois canoes, inferred from the report of Champlain, and that suggested by LaHontan, might indicate this growth.

Beginning as early as 1660, the colonial government of Canada issued congés or trading licenses. These were first granted to the military officers or their families; later the congés were issued to all approved traders, and the fees were used for pensions of the military personnel. Records of these licenses, preserved from about 1700, show that three men commonly made up the crew of a trading canoe in the earliest years, but that by 1725 five men were employed, by 1737 seven men, and by 1747 seven or eight men. However, as LaHontan has stated that in his time three men were sufficient to man a large canoe with cargo, it is evident that the congés offer unreliable data and do not necessarily prove that the size of canoes had increased during this period. The increase in the crews may have been brought about by the greater distances travelled, with an increased number of portages or, perhaps, by heavier items of cargo.

The war canoe does not appear in these early accounts as a special type. According to the traditions of the eastern Micmac and Malecite Indians, their war canoes were only large enough to carry three or four warriors and so must not have exceeded 18 feet in length. These were built for speed, narrow and with very sharp ends; the bottom was made as smooth as was possible. Each canoe carried the insignia of each of its warriors, that is, his personal mark or sign. A canoe carrying a war leader had only his personal mark, none for the rest of the crew. It is possible to regard the large canoes of the Iroquois as "war canoes" since they were used in the pursuit of French raiders in LaHontan's time. However, the Iroquois did not build the canoes primarily for war; in early times these fierce tribesmen preferred to take to the warpath in the dead of winter and to raid overland on snowshoes. In open weather, they used the rough, short-lived and quickly built elm-bark canoes to cross streams and lakes or to follow waterways, discarding them when the immediate purpose was accomplished. Probably it was the French who really produced the bark "war canoes," for they appear to have placed great emphasis on large canoes for use of the military, as indicated by LaHontan's concern with the largest canoes of his time. Perhaps large bark canoes were once used on the Great Lakes for war parties, but, if so, no mention of a special type has been found in the early French accounts. The sparse references suggest that both large and small canoes were used by the war parties but that no special type paralleling the characteristics of the Micmac and Malecite war canoes existed in the West. The huge dugout war canoe of the Indians of the Northwest Coast appears to have had no counterpart in size among the birch or elm bark canoes.

Except for LaHontan, the early French writers who refer to the use of sail agree that the canoes were quite unfitted for sailing. It is extremely doubtful that the prehistoric Indians using bark canoes were acquainted with sails, though it is possible that the coastal Indians might have set up a bush in the bow to utilize a following wind and thus lighten the labor of paddling. However, once the Indian saw the usefulness of a sail demonstrated by white men, he was quick to adopt it; judging from the LaHontan reference, and the use of sails in canoes must have become well established in some areas by 1685.

One of the most important elements in the history of the canoe is its early adoption by the French. Champlain was the first to recommend its use by white men. He stated that the bark canoe would be very necessary in trade and exploration, pointing out that in order to penetrate the back country above the rapids at Montreal, during the short summer season, and to come back in time to return to France for the winter (unless the winter was to be spent in Canada) the canoe would have to be used. With it the small and large streams could be navigated safely and the numerous overland carries could be quickly made. Also, of course, Indians could be employed as crews without the need of training them to row. This general argument in favor of the bark canoe remained sound after the desirability of going home to France for the winter had ceased to influence French ideas. The quick expansion of the French fur trade in the early seventeenth century opened up the western country into the Great Lakes area and to the northward. It was soon discovered that by using canoes on the ancient canoe route along the Ottawa River goods could reach the western posts on the Lakes and be transported north early enough to reach the northernmost posts before the first freeze-up occurred. The use of sailing vessels on the Lakes did not enable this to be accomplished, so that until the railroads were built in western Canada, the canoe remained the mode of transport for the fur trade in this area. Even after the railways were built, canoe traffic remained important, until well into the first half of the twentieth century as part of the local system of transportation in the northwestern country of Canada.

Figure 3

Canoes From LaHontan's Nouveaux Voyages ... dans l'Amerique Septentrionale, showing crude representations typical of early writers.

The unsatisfactory illustrations accompanying early published accounts have been mentioned. The earliest recognizable canoe to be shown in an illustration is the reasonably accurate drawing of a Micmac canoe that appears in Bacqueville de la Poterie's book, published in 1722. LaFiteau, another Frenchman, in 1724 published a book that not only contains recognizable drawings but points out reasons for the variation in the appearance of bark canoes:

The Abenacquis, for example, are less high in the sides, less large, and more flat at the two ends; in a way they are almost level for their whole extent; because those who travel on their small rivers are sure to be troubled and struck by the branches of trees that border and extend over the water. On the other hand, the Outaouacs [Ottawas] and the nations of the upper country having to do their navigation on the St. Lawrence River where there are many falls and rapids, or especially on the Lakes where there is always a very considerable swell, must have high ends.

His illustrations show that his low-ended canoes were of Micmac type but that his high-ended canoes were not of the Ottawa River or Great Lakes types but rather of the eastern Malecite of the lower St. Lawrence valley. This Jesuit missionary also noted that the canoes were alike at the ends and that the paddles were of maple and about 5 feet long, with blades 18 inches long and 6 wide. He observed that bark canoes were unfitted for sailing.

Figure 4

Lines of an Old Birch-Bark Canoe, probably Micmac, brought to England in 1749 from New England. This canoe was not alike at both ends, although apparently intended to be so by the builder. (From Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.)

The early English settlers of New England and New York were acquainted with the canoe forms of eastern Indians such as the Micmac, Malecite, Abnaki, and the Iroquois. Surviving records, however, show no detailed description of these canoes by an English writer and no illustration until about 1750. At this time a bark canoe, apparently Micmac, was brought from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to England and delivered to Lord Anson who had it placed in the Boat House of the Chatham Dockyard. There it was measured and a scale drawing was made by Admiralty draftsmen; the drawing is now in the Admiralty Collection of Draughts, in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. A redrawing of this plan appears opposite. It probably represents a war canoe, since a narrow, sharp-ended canoe is shown. The bottom, neither flat nor fully round, is a rounded V-shape; this may indicate a canoe intended for coastal waters. Other drawings, of a later date, showing crude plans of canoes, exist in Europe but none yet found appear as carefully drawn as the Admiralty plan, a scale drawing, which seems to be both the earliest and the most accurate 18th-century representation of a tribal type of American Indian bark canoe.

Due to the rapid development of the French fur trade, and the attendant exploration, a great variety of canoe types must have become known to the French by 1750, yet little in the way of drawings and no early scale plans have been found. This is rather surprising, not only because the opportunity for observation existed but also because a canoe factory was actually operated by the French. The memoirs of Colonel Franquet, Military Engineer-in-Chief for New France, contain extensive references to this factory as it existed in 1751.

The canoe factory was located at Trois Rivières, just below Montreal, on the St. Lawrence. A standard large canoe was built, and the rate of production was then 20 a year. Franquet gives as the dimensions of the canoes the following (converted to English measurement): length 36 feet, beam about 5½ feet, and depth about 33 inches. Much of his description is not clear, but it seems evident that the canoe described was very much like the later grand canot, or large canoe, of the fur trade. The date at which this factory was established is unknown; it may have existed as early as 1700, as might have been required by the rapid expansion of the French trade and other activities in the last half of the previous century. It is apparent from early comments that the French found the Indian canoe-builders unreliable, not to say most uncertain, as a source of supply. The need for large canoes for military and trade operations had forced the establishment of such a factory as soon as Europeans could learn how to build the canoes. This would, in fact, have been the only possible solution.

Of course, it must not be assumed that the bark canoes were the only watercraft used by the early French traders. They used plank boats as well, ranging from scows to flat-bottomed bateaux and ship's boats, and they also had some early sailing craft built on the Great Lakes and on the lower St. Lawrence. The bateau, shaped much like a modern dory but with a sharp stern, was adopted by the English settlers as well as the French. In early colonial times this form of boat was called by the English a "battoe," or "Schenectady Boat," and later, an "Albany Boat." It was sharp at both ends, it usually had straight flaring sides with a flat bottom, and was commonly built of white pine plank. Some, however, had rounded sides and lapstrake planking, as shown by a plan of a bateau of 1776 in the Admiralty Collection of Draughts. Early bateaux had about the same range of size as the bark canoes but later ones were larger.

After the English gained control of Canada, the records of the Hudson's Bay Company, and of individual traders and travellers such as Alexander Henry, Jr., and Alexander MacKenzie, at the end of the eighteenth century, give much material on the fur-trade canoes but little on the small Indian canoes. In general, these records show that the fur-trade canoe of the West was commonly 24 feet long inside the gunwales, exclusive of the curves of bow and stern; 4 feet 9 inches beam; 26 inches deep; and light enough to be carried by two men, as MacKenzie recorded, "three or four miles without resting on a good road." But the development of the fur-trade canoes is best left for a later chapter.

The use of the name "canoe" for bark watercraft does not appear to been taken from a North American Indian usage. The early French explorers and travellers called these craft canau (pl. canaux). As this also meant "canal," the name canot (pl. canots) was soon substituted. But some early writers preferred to call the canoe ecorse de bouleau, or birch-bark, and sometimes the name used was merely the generic petit embarcation, or small boat. The early English term was "canoa," later "canoe." The popular uses of canoe, canoa, canau, and canot are thought to have begun early in the sixteenth century as the adaptation of a Carib Indian word for a dugout canoe.

Summary

It will be seen that the early descriptions of the North American bark canoes are generally lacking in exact detail. Yet this scanty information strongly supports the claim that bark canoes were highly developed and that the only influence white men exercised upon their design was related to an increase in size of the large canoes that may have taken place in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The very early recognition of the speed, fine construction, and general adaptability of the bark canoes to wilderness travel sustain this view. The two known instances mentioned of early accurate illustration emphasize that distinct variations in tribal forms of canoes existed, and that these were little changed between early colonial times and a relatively recent period, despite steadily increasing influence of the European.

Chapter Two
MATERIALS and TOOLS

Bark of the paper birch was the material preferred by the North American Indians for the construction of their canoes, although other barks were used where birch was not available. This tree (Betula papyrifera Marsh.), also known as the canoe birch, is found in good soil, often near streams, and where growing conditions are favorable it becomes large, reaching a height of a hundred feet, with a butt diameter of thirty inches or more. Its range forms a wide belt across the continent, with the northern limits in Canada along a line extending westward from Newfoundland to the southern shores of Hudson Bay and thence generally northwestward to Great Bear Lake, the Yukon River, and the Alaskan coast. The southern limits extend roughly westward from Long Island to the southern shores of Lake Erie and through central Michigan to Lake Superior, thence through Wisconsin, northern Nebraska, and northwesterly through the Dakotas, northern Montana, and northern Washington to the Pacific Coast. The trees are both abundant and large in the eastern portion of the belt, particularly in Newfoundland, Quebec, the Maritime Provinces, Ontario, Maine, and New Hampshire, in contrast to the western areas. Near the limits of growth to the north and south the trees are usually small and scattered.

The leaves are rather small, deep green, and pointed-oval, and are often heart-shaped at the base. The edges of the leaves are rather coarsely toothed along the margin, which is slightly six-notched. The small limbs are black, sometimes spotted with white, and the large are white.

The bark of the tree has an aromatic odor when freshly peeled, and is chalky white marked with black splotches on either side of limbs or where branches have grown at one time. Elsewhere on the bark, dark, or black, horizontal lines of varying lengths also appear. The lower part of the tree, to about the height of winter snows, has bark that is usually rough, blemished and thin; above this level, to the height of the lowest large limbs, the bark is often only slightly blemished and is thick and well formed. The bark is made up of paper-like layers, their color deepens with each layer from the chalky white of the exterior through creamy buff to a light tan on the inner layer. A gelatinous greenish to yellow rind, or cambium layer, lies between the bark and the wood of the trunk; its characteristics are different from those of the rest of the bark. The horizontal lines that appear on each successive paper-like layer do not appear on the rind.

The thickness of the bark cannot be judged from the size of a tree and may vary markedly among trees of the same approximate size in a single grove. The thickness varies from a little less than one-eighth to over three-sixteenths inch; bark with a thickness of one-quarter inch or more is rarely found. For canoe construction, bark must be over one-eighth inch thick, tough, and from a naturally straight trunk of sufficient diameter and length to give reasonably large pieces. The "eyes" must be small and not so closely spaced as to allow the bark to split easily in their vicinity.

The bark can be peeled readily when the sap is flowing. In winter, when the exterior of the tree is frozen, the bark can be removed only when heat is applied. During a prolonged thaw, however, this may be accomplished without the application of heat. Bark peeled from the tree during a winter thaw, and early in the spring or late in the fall, usually adheres strongly to the inner rind, which comes away from the tree with the bark. The act of peeling, however, puts a strain on the bark, so that only tough, well-made bark can be removed under these conditions. This particular characteristic caused Indians in the east to call bark with the rind adhering "winter bark," even though it might have been peeled from a tree during the warm weather of early summer. Since in large trees the flow of sap usually starts later than in small ones, the period in which good bark is obtainable may extend into late June in some localities. Upon exposure to air and moisture, the inner rind first turns orange-red and gradually darkens with age until in a few years it becomes dark brown, or sepia. If it is first moistened, the rind can be scraped off, and this allowed it to be employed in decoration, enough being left to form designs. Hence winter bark was prized.

To the eastern Indians "summer bark" was a poor grade that readily separated into its paper-like layers, a characteristic of bark peeled in hot weather, or of poorly made bark in any season. In the west, however, high-quality bark was often scarce and, therefore, the distinction between winter and summer bark does not seem to have been made. Newfoundland once had excellent canoe bark, as did the Maritime Provinces, Maine, New Hampshire, and Quebec, but the best bark was found back from the seacoast. Ontario and the country to the immediate north of Lake Superior are also said to have produced bark of high quality for canoe building.

The bark of the paper birch was preferred for canoe building because it could be obtained in quite large sheets clear of serious blemishes; because its grain ran around the tree rather than along the line of vertical tree growth, so that sheets could be "sewn" together to obtain length in a canoe; and because the bark was resinous and not only did not stretch and shrink as did other barks, but also had some elasticity when green, or when kept damp. This elasticity, of course, was lost once the bark was allowed to become dry through exposure to air and sunshine, a factor which controlled to some extent the technique of its employment.

Many other barks were employed in bark canoe construction, but in most instances the craft were for temporary or emergency use and were discarded after a short time. Such barks as spruce (Picea), elm (Ulmus), chestnut (Castenea dentata L.), hickory (Carya spp.), basswood (Tilia spp.), and cottonwood (Populus spp.) are said to have been used in bark canoe construction in some parts of North America. Birches other than the paper birch could be used, but most of them produced bark that was thin and otherwise poor, and was considered unsuitable for the better types of canoes. Barks other than birch usually had rough surfaces that had to be scraped away, in order to make the material flexible enough for canoe construction. Spruce bark had some of the good qualities of the paper birch bark, but to a far less degree, and was considered at best a mere substitute. Non-resinous barks, because of their structure could not be joined together to gain length, and their characteristic shrinkage and swelling made it virtually impossible to keep them attached to a solid framework for any great length of time.

Figure 5

Ojibway Indian carrying spruce roots, Lac Seul, Ont., 1919. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)

The material used for "sewing" together pieces of birch bark was most commonly the root of the black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.), which grows in much of the area where the paper birch exists. The root of this particular spruce is long but of small diameter; it is tough, durable, and flexible enough for the purpose. The tree usually grows in soft, moist ground, so that the long roots are commonly very close to the surface, where they could easily be dug up with a sharp stick or with the hands. In some areas of favorable growing conditions, the roots of the black spruce could be obtained in lengths up to 20 feet, yet with a maximum diameter no larger than that of a lead pencil.

Figure 6

Roll of Bark for a Hunting Canoe. Holding the bark is the intended builder, Vincent Mikans, then (in 1927), at age 100, the oldest Indian on the Algonkin Reserve at Golden Lake, Ont.

Other roots could be used in an emergency, such as those of the other spruces, as well as of the northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.), tamarack (hackmatack or eastern larch) (Laris laricina (Du Roi) K. Koch) and jack pine (pinus banksiana Lamb.), the last named being used extensively by some of the western tribes. Although inferior to the black spruce for sewing, these and other materials were used for sewing bark; even rawhide was employed for some purposes in canoe construction by certain tribes.

Canoes built of nonresinous barks were usually lashed, instead of sewn, by thongs of such material as the inner bark of the northern white cedar, basswood, elm, or hickory, for the reason stated earlier. Spruce root was also used for lashings, if readily available. Since sheets of birch bark were joined without employing a needle, the sewing actually could more correctly be termed lacing, rather than stitching. But for the nonresinous barks, which could stand little sewing or lacing, perhaps lashing is the better term.

Before steel tools became available to the Indians, the woodwork required in constructing a birch-bark canoe represented great labor, since stone tools having poor cutting characteristics were used. Selection of the proper wood was therefore a vital consideration. In most sections of the bark canoe area, the northern white cedar was the most sought-for wood for canoe construction. This timber had the excellent characteristic of splitting cleanly and readily when dry and well-seasoned. As a result, the Indian could either utilize fallen timber of this species, windblown or torn up in spring floods; with the crude means available he could fell a suitable tree well in advance of his needs; or he could girdle the tree so that it would die and season on the stump and then fell it at his convenience. If split properly, ribs of white cedar could be bent and set in shape by the use of hot water. In many areas the ribs, sheathing, and the gunwale members of bark canoes were made of this wood, as were also the headboards and stem pieces.

Figure 7

Black spruce was also employed, as it too would split well, although only when green. This wood also required a different direction in splitting than the white cedar. Ribs of black spruce could be bent and set in shape when this was done while the wood was green. In some areas black spruce was used in place of white cedar for all parts of a bark canoe structure.

Hard maple (usually either Acer saccharum Marsh. or A. nigrum Michx.), can be split rather easily while green; this wood was used for the crosspieces or thwarts that hold the gunwales apart and for paddles. Larch, particularly western larch (Larix occidentalis Nutt.), was used in some areas for canoe members. White and black ash (Fraxinus americana L. and F. nigra Marsh.), were also used where suitable wood of these species was available. In the northwest, spruce and various pines were employed, as was also willow (Salix). It should be noted that the use of many woods in bark canoe construction can be identified only in the period after steel tools became available; it must be assumed that the range of selection was much narrower in prehistoric times.

To make a bark cover watertight, it is necessary to coat all seams and to cover all "sewing" with a waterproof material, of which the most favored by the Indians was "spruce gum," the resin obtained from black or white spruce (Picea mariana or P. glauca (Moench) Voss). The resin of the red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) was not used, so far as has been discovered. The soft resin was scraped from a fallen tree or from one damaged in summer. Spruce gum could be accumulated by stripping a narrow length of bark from trees early in the spring and then, during warm weather, gathering the resin that appeared at the bottoms of the scars thus made. It was melted or heated in various ways to make it workable and certain materials were usually added to make it durable in use.

Figure 8

The most important aids to the Indian in canoe construction were his patience, knowledge of the working qualities of materials, his manual skill with the crude cutting, scraping, and boring instruments known to him, and of course fire; time was, perforce, of less importance. The canoe builder had to learn by experience and close observation how to work the material available. The wood-working tools of the stone age were relatively inefficient, but with care and skill could be used with remarkable precision and neatness.

Felling of trees was accomplished by use of a stone axe, hatchet, or adze, combined with the use of fire. The method almost universally employed by primitive people was followed. The tree was first girdled by striking it with the stone tool to loosen and raise the wood fibers and remove the soft green bark. Above this girdle the trunk was daubed all around with wet earth, or preferably clay. A large, hot fire was then built around the base of the tree and, after the loose fibers were burned away and the wood well charred, the char was removed by blows from the stone tool. The process was repeated until the trunk was cut through enough for the tree to fall. The fallen trunk could be cut into sections by employing the same methods, mud being laid on each side of the "cut" to prevent the fire from spreading along the trunk. Fire could also be used to cut down poles and small trees, to cut them into sections, and to sharpen the ends into points to form crude wedges or stakes.

Stone tools were formed by chipping flint, jasper, or other forms of quartz, such as chalcedony, into flakes with sharp edges. This was done by striking the nodule of stone a sharp blow with another stone held in the hand or mounted in a handle of hide or wood to form a stone hammer. The flakes were then shaped by pressing the edges with a horn point—say, part of a deer antler—to force a chip from the flake. The chipping tool was sometimes fitted with a hide or wood handle set at right angles to the tool, so that its head could be hit with a stone or horn hammer. The flake being worked upon, if small, was often held in the hand, which was protected from the slipping of a chipping tool by a pad of rawhide. Heat was not used in chipping, and some Indians took care to keep the flake damp while working it, occasionally burying the flake for a while in moist soil. The cutting edge of a stone tool could be ground by abrasion on a hard piece of granite or on sandstone, but the final degree of sharpness depended upon the qualities of the stone being used as a tool. Slate could be used in tools in spite of its brittleness. In general, stone tools were unsuitable for chopping or whittling wood.

Figure 9

Splitting was done by starting the split at the upper, or small end, of a balk of timber with a maul and a stone wedge or the blade of a stone axe, hatchet, or knife. The stone knives used for this work were not finished tools with wood handles, but rather, as the blade was often damaged in use, selected flakes fitted with hide pads that served as a handle. The tool was usually driven into the wood with blows from a wooden club or maul, the brittle stone tool being protected from damage by a pad of rawhide secured to the top, or head, of the tool. Once the split was started, it could be continued by driving more wedges, or pointed sticks, into the split; this process was continued until the whole balk was divided. White cedar was split into quarters by this method and then the heartwood was split away, the latter being used for canoe structural members. From short balks of the length of the longest rib or perhaps a little more, were split battens equal in thickness to two ribs and in width also equal to two, so that by splitting one batten two ways four finished ribs were produced. The broad faces of the ribs were as nearly parallel to the bark side of the wood as possible, as the ribs would bend satisfactorily toward or away from the bark side only. Black spruce, however, was split in line with the wood rays, from the heart outward toward the bark, so that one of the rib's narrow edges faced the bark side; only in this direction would the wood split readily and only when made this way would the ribs bend without great breakage.

Figure 10

Long pieces for sheathing and for the gunwale members were split from white cedar or black spruce. The splitting of such long pieces as these required not only proper selection of clear wood, but also careful manipulation of wood and tools in the operation. Splitting of this kind—say, for ribs in the finish cut—was usually done by first splitting out a batten large enough to form two members. To split it again, a stone knife was tapped into the end grain to start the split at the desired point, which, as has been noted, was always at the upper end of the stick, not at the root end. Once the split was opened, it was continued by use of a sharp-pointed stick and the stone knife; if the split showed a tendency to run off the grain as it opened, it could be controlled by bending the batten, or one of the halves, away from the direction the split was taking. The first rough split usually served to show the worker the splitting characteristics of a piece of wood. This method of finishing frame members in bark canoes accounts for the uneven surfaces that often mark some parts, a wavy grain producing a wave in the surface of the wood when it was finished. If it were desired to produce a partially split piece of wood, such as some tribal groups used for the stems, or in order to allow greater curvature at the ends of the gunwale, the splitting was stopped at the desired point and a tight lashing of rawhide or bark was placed there to form a stop.

The tapering of frames, gunwales, and thwarts and the shaping of paddles were accomplished by splitting away surplus wood along the thin edges and by abrasion and scraping on all edges. Stone scrapers were widely employed; shell could be employed in some areas. Rubbing with an abrasive such as soft sandstone was used when the wood became thoroughly dry; hardwood could often be polished by rubbing it with a large piece of wood, or by use of fine sand held in a rawhide pad. By these means the sharp edges could be rounded off and the final shaping accomplished. Some stone knives could be used to cut wood slowly, saw fashion, and this process appears to to have been used to form the thwart ends that in many canoes were tenoned into the gunwales. A stone knife used saw fashion would also cut a bent sapling easily, though slowly. To cut and trim bark a stone knife was employed; to peel bark from a tree, a hatchet, axe, or chisel could be used.

Figure 11

Drilling was done by means of a bone awl made from a splinter of the shank-bone of a deer; the blade of this awl had a roughly triangular cross-section. The splinter was held in a wooden handle or in a rawhide grip. The awl was used not only to make holes in wood, but also as the punch to make holes for "sewing" in bark. Large holes were drilled by means of the bow-drill, in which a stone drill-point was rotated back and forth by the bow-string. Some Indians rotated the drill between the palms of their hands, or by a string with handgrips at each end. The top of the drill was steadied by a block held in the worker's mouth, the top rotating in a hole in the underside of the block. With the bow-drill, however, the block was held in one hand.

Figure 12

Peeling the bark from roots and splitting them was done by use of the thumbnail, a stone knife, or a clamshell. Biting was also resorted to. The end of a root could also be split by first pounding it with a stone, using a log or another stone as an anvil, to open the fibers at one end. Splitting a root was usually done by biting to start the split. Once this was done, half was held in the mouth and the other half between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand. Then the two parts were gradually pulled apart with the right hand, while the thumbnail of the left was used to guide the split. If the split showed a tendency to "run off," bending the root away from the direction of the run while continuing the splitting usually served to change the course of the split. If a root was hard to split, the stone knife came into play instead of the thumbnail. When the split reached arm's length, the ends were shifted in hand and mouth and the operation continued.

The use of hot water as an aid in bending wood was well known to some tribal groups before the white man came. Water was placed in a wooden trough, or in a bark basin, and heated to boiling by dropping hot stones into it. Some Indians boiled water in bark utensils by placing them over a fire of hot coals surrounded by stones and earth so that the flame could not reach the highly inflammable bark above the water-level in the dish. Stones were lifted from the fire with wooden tongs made of green saplings bent into a U-shape or made into a spoon-like outline. A straight stick and a forked one, used together, formed another type of tongs. The straight stick was placed in and under the fork; then, by forcing the latter under the stone and bringing the end of the straight stick hard against its top, the stone was held firmly, pincer-fashion.

The wood to be bent was first soaked in the boiling water, or the water was poured over it by means of a birch-bark or other dipper. When the wood was thoroughly soaked with boiling water, bending began, and as it progressed boiling water was almost continuously poured on the wood. When the wood had been bent to a desired form, it was secured in shape by thongs and allowed to cool and dry out, during which it would take a permanent set. Hard bends, as in gunwale ends and stem-pieces, were made by this means, usually after the wood had been split into a number of laminations in the area of the greatest bend. When the piece had been boiled and bent to its required form, the laminations were secured by wrapping them spirally with a thong of inner bark (such as basswood), of roots, or of rawhide.

Flat stones were used to weigh down bark in order to flatten it and prevent curling. Picked up about the canoe-building site, they had one smooth and fairly flat surface so that no harm came to the bark, and were of such size and weight as could be handled easily by the builder. Smooth stones from a stream appear to have been preferred. In preparation for building a canoe, the pins, stakes, and poles which were of only temporary use were cut or burned down in the manner mentioned and stored ready for use. Bark containers were made and filled with spruce gum, and the materials used in making it hard and durable were gathered. The building site was selected in the shade, to prevent the bark from becoming hard and brittle, and on ground that was smooth, clear of outcroppings of stone, and roots, or other obstructions, and firm enough to hold the stakes driven into it. The location was, of course, usually near the water where the canoe was to be launched.

Figure 13

When steel tools became available, the work of the Indian in cutting and shaping wood became much easier but it is doubtful that better workmanship resulted. The steel axe and hatchet made more rapid and far easier than before the felling and cutting up of trees, poles, and sticks; they could also be used in peeling bark. The favored style of axe among Canadian Indians was what is known as the "Hudson Bay axe"; it is made as a fairly large or "full-axe," as a lighter "half-axe," and as a large hatchet, or hand-axe. The head of the blade is very narrow, the front of the blade vertical, while the back widens toward the cutting edge and the latter stands at a slightly acute angle to the front of the blade. This style of axe seems to follow the traditional form of the tomahawk and is popular because it cuts well, yet is lighter to carry than the other forms of axe. It is also called a "cedar axe" in some localities. In modern times, Indian hatchets are of the commercial variety, the "lathing" form being preferred because it holds somewhat to the old trade tomahawk in form of blade and weight. The traditional steel tomahawk, incidentally was an adaptation of one of the European forms of hatchet, sold in the early days of the fur trade.

Figure 14

Figure 15

The "canoe awl" of the fur trade was a steel awl with a blade triangular or square in cross-section, and was sometimes made of an old triangular file of small size. Its blade was locked into a hardwood handle, and it was a modern version of the old bone awl of the bark canoe builders, hence its name.

The plane was also used by modern Indians, but not in white man's fashion, in which the wood is held in a vise and smoothed by sliding the tool forward over the work. The Indian usually fixed the plane upside down on a bench or timber and slid the work over the sole, much as would be done with a power-driven joiner. However, the plane was not very popular among any of the canoe-building Indians.

Figure 16

The boring tool most favored by the Indians was the common steel gimlet; if a larger boring tool was desired, an auger of the required diameter was bought and fitted with a removable cross-handle rather than a brace.

One steel tool having much popularity among canoe-building Indians was the pioneer's splitting tool known as the "froe." This was a heavy steel blade, fifteen to twenty inches long, about two inches wide, and nearly a quarter inch thick along its back. One end of the blade ended in a tight loop into which a heavy hardwood handle, about a foot long, was set at right angles to the back edge of the blade, so that, when held in the hand, the blade was cutting edge down, with the handle upright. The froe was driven into the end of a balk of timber to be split by blows from a wooden maul on the back of its blade. Once the split was started, the maul was dropped and the hand that had held it was placed at the end of the blade away from the handle. By twisting the blade with the two hands the split could be forced open. The froe was a most powerful and efficient splitting tool when narrow, short plank, or battens, were required. The balk to be split was usually placed more or less end-up, as its length permitted, in the crotch of a felled tree, so as to hold it steady during the splitting. The pioneer used this tool to make clapboards and riven shingles; the Indian canoe builder found it handy for all splitting.

Figure 17

Another pioneer tool that became useful to the Indian canoe builder was the "shaving horse." A sort of bench and vise, it was used by Indians in a variety of forms, all based on the same principle of construction. Usually a seven-foot-long bench made of a large log flattened on top was supported by two or four legs, one pair being high enough to raise that end of the bench several feet off the ground to provide a seat for the operator. To the top of the bench was secured a shorter, wedge-shaped piece flattened top and bottom, with one end beveled and fastened to the bench and the other held about 12 inches above it by a support tenoned into the bench about thirty inches from the high end. Through the bench and the shorter piece were cut slots, about four feet from the high end of the bench and aligned to receive an arm pivoted on the bench and extending from the ground to above the upper slot. The arm was shaped to overhang the slot on the front, toward the operator's end of the bench, and on each side. The lower portion of the arm was squared to fit the slot, and a crosspiece was secured to, or through, its lower end.

Figure 18

Shaving Horse.

The worker sat astraddle the high end of the bench, facing the low end, with his feet on the crosspiece of the pivoted arm. Placing a piece of wood on top of the wedge-shaped piece, close to the head of the pivoted arm, he pushed forward on the crosspiece with his feet, thus forcing the head down hard upon the wood, so that it was held as in a vise. The wood could then be shaved down to a required shape with a drawknife or crooked knife without the necessity of holding the work. A long piece was canted on top of the bench so that the finished part would pass by the body of the worker, and, if it were necessary to shape the full length, it could be reversed.

Nails and tacks eventually came into use, though they were never used in all phases of the construction of a particular canoe. In the last days of bark canoe construction, the bark was tacked to the gunwales and, in areas where a gunwale cap was customarily employed, the cap was often nailed to the top of the gunwales.

The "bucksaw" also came into the hands of the Indians, but the frame of this saw was too awkward to carry, so the Indian usually bought only the blade. With a couple of nails and a bent sapling he could make a very good frame in the woods, when the saw was required. The ends of the sapling were slotted to take the ends of the blade and then drilled crosswise to the slot, so a nail could be inserted to hold the ends of blade and sapling together. With the end of the nail bent over, the frame was locked together and the tension was given to the blade by the bent sapling handle.

Figure 19

The "crooked knife" was the most important and popular steel tool found among the Indians building bark canoes. It was made from a flat steel file with one side worked down to a cutting-edge. The back of the blade thus formed was usually a little less than an eighth of an inch thick. The cutting edge was bevel-form, like that of a drawknife or chisel, with the back face quite flat. The tang of the file was fitted into a handle made of a crotched stick, to one arm of which the tang was attached, while the other projected at a slightly obtuse angle away from the back of the blade. The tang was usually held in place by being bent at its end into a slight hook and let into the handle, where it was secured with sinew lashing; wire later came into use for this lashing. The knife, held with the cutting edge toward the user, was grasped fingers-up with the thumb of the holding hand laid along the part of the handle projecting away from the user. This steadied the knife in cutting. Unlike a jackknife, the crooked knife was not used to whittle but to cut toward the user, and was, in effect, a one-hand drawknife. This form of knife is so satisfactory that it is to this day employed instead of a drawknife by many boat-builders in New Brunswick and Quebec. A variation in the crooked knife has the tip of the blade turned upward, on the flat, so that it can be used in hollowing out a wooden bowl or dish. The blades of crooked knives seen are usually about five-eighths inch wide and perhaps five or six inches long. Some are only slightly beveled along the cutting edge; others show this feature very markedly.

Awls, as well as chisels and other stone or bone blades, often had handles on their sides to allow them to be held safely when hit with a hammer. Some of the stone blades and chisels thus took the form of adzes and could be used like them, but only, of course, to cut charred or very soft wood. The sharpening of stone tools followed the same methods used in their original manufacture and was a slow undertaking.

To some Indians an efficient wood-cutting chisel was available in the teeth of the beaver. Each tooth was nearly a quarter inch wide, so two teeth would give a cut of nearly half an inch. The usual practice appears to have been to employ the skull as a handle, though some beaver tooth chisels had wooden handles. As used in making tenons in the gunwales, two holes, of a diameter equal to the desired width, were first drilled close enough together to make the length of the desired tenon, after which the intervening wood, especially if it was white cedar or black spruce, could be readily split out by means of either a beaver tooth or narrow stone chisel.

The maul was merely some form of wooden club; the most common type was made by cutting away part of the length of a small balk to form a handle, the remainder being left to form the head. The swelling of the trunk of a small tree at the ground, where the roots form, was also utilized to give weight and bulk to the head of a maul. It could be hardened by scorching the head in a fire. Another method of pounding and driving was to employ a stone held in one hand or both. Stone hammers were rarely employed, since the maul or a stone held in the hand would serve the purpose.

The birch tree that was to supply the bark was usually selected far in advance of the time of construction. By exploring the birch groves, the builder located a number of trees from which a suitable quantity of bark of the desired quality could be obtained. Samples of the bark of each tree were stripped from the trunk and carefully inspected and tested. If they separated into layers when bent back and forth, the bark was poor. If the "eyes" inside the bark were lumpy, the bark in their vicinity would split too easily; this was also true if they were too close together, but if the eyes on the inside of the bark appeared hollow there was no objection. Bark that was dead white, or the outer surface of which was marked by small strips partly peeled away from the layer below, would be rejected as poor in quality.

Preferably, bark was stripped from the selected trees during a prolonged thaw in winter, particularly one accompanied by rain, or as soon as the sap in the trees had begun to flow in early spring. If this was not possible, "winter" bark, as described on page [14], was used as long as it was obtainable. Only dire necessity forced the Indian to use bark of a poor quality. Fall peeling, after the first frosts, was also practiced in some areas. The work on the tree was done from stages made of small trees whose branches could be used in climbing, or from rough ladders constructed of short rungs lashed to two poles. When steel axes and hatchets were available the tree could be felled, provided care was taken to have it fall on poles laid on the ground to prevent damage to the bark in the fall and to keep the trunk high enough to allow it to be peeled. Felling permitted use of hot water to heat the bark, and thus made peeling possible in colder weather than would permit stripping a standing tree. Felling by burning, however, sometimes resulted in an uncontrolled fall in which the bark could be damaged.

Whether stone or steel knives were used, the bark was cut in the same manner, with the blade held at an angle to make a slashing cut; holding a sharp knife upright, so as to cut square to the surface of the bark, makes the tool stick and jump, and a ragged cut results. A stone or steel axe blade could also very readily be used in cutting bark; with such tools, it was customary to tap the head with a maul to make the cut. It was necessary to make only the longitudinal cut on the trunk of the birch tree, as the bark would split around the tree with the grain at the ends of this cut. Spruce and other barks, however, required both vertical and horizontal cuts.

Once the vertical cut was made to the desired length, one edge of the bark was carefully pried away from the wood with the blade of a knife. Then the removal of the bark could proceed more rapidly. Instead of starting the bark with a knife blade, some Indians used a small stick, one end of which was slightly bent and made into a chisel shape about three-quarters of an inch wide. This was used to pry the bark away, not only along the edge of the vertical cut, but throughout the operation of peeling. Another tool, useful in obtaining "winter" bark, which was difficult to strip from the tree, was a piece of dry, thick birch bark, about a foot square, with one edge cut in a slight round and beveled to a sharp edge. The beveled side was inserted beneath the bark and rocked on its curved cutting edge, thus separating the bark from the wood with less danger of splitting the bark. Spruce and other barks were removed from the tree with the same tools.

After the bark had been removed from the tree, it was handled with great care to avoid splitting it along the grain. Even in quite warm weather, the bark was usually heated slightly with a bark torch to make it flexible; sometimes hot water was applied if the inner rind was not to be used for decoration. Then the sheets were rolled up tightly in the direction of growth of the tree. This made a roll convenient for transporting and also helped to prevent the bark from curling. If the bark was not to be used immediately, it was carefully submerged in water so that it would not dry out before it was fitted to the canoe. Spruce and other resinous barks, which could not be stored, were used as soon as possible after they were stripped from the tree, the rough exterior surface being removed by scraping.

Roots for "sewing" were also gathered, split, and rolled up, then placed in water so they would remain flexible. Sometimes they were boiled as well, just before being used.

The spruce gum was gathered and tempered. Before metal kettles and frying pans became available to the Indians, it was heated in a number of ways. One method was to heat it in a wooden trough with hot stones. As the spruce gum melted easily, great temperature was not required. Stone and pottery containers were also used. Another method was to boil water in a bark container and drop in the spruce gum, which melted and floated on top of the water in such a consistency that it could be skimmed off with a bark spoon or dipper. Chips and dirt were skimmed off the hot gum with a strip of bark or a flat stick.

Figure 20

Peeling, Rolling, and Transporting bark for use in canoe construction. (Sketches by Adney.)

Tempering, done after the gum was melted, consisted of adding animal fat and a little finely powdered charcoal. The mixture was then tested by dipping a strip of bark into it and then into cold water. The strip was bent to see if it cracked the spruce gum; if it did, too much tempering material had been added and more gum was required. If no cracking occurred, the gum on the strip was held in the hand for a few moments to see if it became tacky or could be rubbed off the strip; if either occurred, more tempering was needed. The method of tempering had many variations. One was to remelt the gum a number of times; this darkened it and made it harder. Red ochre or vermillion were sometimes added, often together with charcoal made from the willow. Instead of spruce gum, in some areas, pine resin was used, tempered with tallow and sometimes charcoal. The Indians in the East sometimes used remelted spruce gum to which a little tallow had been added, making a light brown or almost transparent mixture. Most tribal groups used gum that was black, or nearly so.

For repair work, when melted spruce gum could not be procured in the usual manner, hard globules and flakes of gum scraped from a fallen spruce tree were used. These could not be easily melted, so they were first chewed thoroughly until soft; then the gum was spread over a seam. This type of gum would not stick well unless it were smoothed with a glowing stick, and hence was used only in emergencies.

It is believed that before steel tools were available birch-bark canoes were commonly built of a number of sheets of bark rather than, as quite often occurred in later times, of only one or two sheets. The greater number of sheets in the early canoes resulted from the difficulty in obtaining large sheets from a standing tree. Comparison of surviving birch-bark canoes suggests that those built of a number of sheets would have contained the better bark, as large sheets often included bark taken from low on the trunk, and this, as has been mentioned, is usually of poorer quality than that higher on the trunk.

It is known that the early Indians carried on some trade in bark canoe building materials, as they did in stone for weapons and tools. Areas in which some materials were scarce or of poor quality might thus obtain replacements from more fortunate areas. Fine quality bark, "sewing" roots, and good spruce gum had trade value, and these items were sold by some of the early fur traders. Paint does not appear to have been used on early canoes, except, in some instances, on the woodwork. This use occurred mostly in the East, particularly among the Beothuks in Newfoundland. Paint was apparently not used on birch bark until it was introduced by white men in the fur trade.

Summary

It will be seen that the Indian gathered all materials and prepared them for use with only a few simple tools, most of which could be manufactured at the building site and discarded after the work was completed. The only other tools he usually brought to the scene were those he normally required in his everyday existence in the forest. Some instruments used in canoe building, however, might be preserved; these were the measuring sticks on which were marked, by notches, certain measurements to be used in shaping a canoe. Also, some Indians used a building frame that shaped the bottom in plan view. These are best described when the actual building methods are examined.

Figure 21

Building Frame for a Large Canoe. Dotted lines show change in shape is caused by omitting crossbars or by using short bars in ends. Note lashing at ends and method of fastening thwart with a thong.

Chapter Three
FORM AND CONSTRUCTION

Classification of the types of bark canoes built by the Indians is not a simple matter. Perhaps the most practical way is to employ the tribal designation, such as Cree canoe, Micmac canoe, accepting as a criterion the distinctive general appearance of the canoes used by each tribe. It must be emphasized, however, that this method of classification does not indicate the model, or "lines," employed. Both the model and the size of bark canoes were extensively affected by the requirements of use: lake, coastal, or river navigation; smooth, rough, or fast-running water; transportation of a hunter, a family, or cargo; the conditions and length of portages; and the permanence of construction desired. Canoes of various models, sizes, methods of construction, or decoration might be found within the limits of a single tribal classification. Also, within a given area, there might be apparent similarity in model among the canoes of two or three tribal groups. However, a classification based on geographical areas has been found to be impractical, because the movements of tribal groups in search of new hunting grounds tend to make tribal boundaries difficult to define.

Form

The canoes of some tribal groups appear to be hybrids, representing an intermingling of types as a result of some past contact between tribes. Those of other groups are of like model, form, and even appearance, possibly owing to like conditions of employment. The effects of a similarity in use requirements upon inventiveness is seen in the applications for modern patent rights, where two or more applications can cover almost exactly the same device without the slightest evidence of contact between the applicants; there is no logical reason to suppose the same condition cannot apply to primitive peoples, even though their processes of invention might be very slow or relatively rare in occurrence.

The effects of migration of tribes upon their canoe forms can only be studied with respect to those comparatively recent times for which records and observations are available. From the limited information at hand it appears that the Indian, when he moved to an area where use requirements and materials available for building differed from those to which he had been accustomed, was often forced to modify the model, form, size, and construction of his canoe. In some instances this seems to have resulted in the adoption of another tribal form.

The distinctive feature that usually identifies the tribal classification of a bark canoe is the profile of the ends, although sometimes the profile of the gunwale, or sheer, and even of the bottom, is also involved. The bow and stern of many bark canoes were as near alike in profile as the method of construction would permit; nevertheless some types had distinct bow and and stern forms. Among tribes the form of the ends of the canoes varied considerably; some were low and unimpressive, others were high and often graceful.

Obviously practical reasons can be found for certain tribal variations. In some areas, the low ends appear to ensue from the use of the canoe in open water, where the wind resistance of a high end would make paddling laborious. In others the low ends appear to result from the canoe being commonly employed in small streams where overhanging branches would obstruct passage. Portage conditions may likewise have been a factor; low ends would pass through brush more easily than high. Types used where rapids were to be run often had ends higher than the gunwales to prevent the canoe from shipping water over the bow. The high, distinctive ends of the canoes most used in the fur trade, on the other hand, were said to have resulted from the necessity of employing the canoe as a shelter. When the canoe was turned upside down on the ground, with one gunwale and the tops of the high ends supporting it, there was enough headroom under the canoe to permit its use as a shelter without the addition of any temporary structure. The desirability of this characteristic in the fur-trade canoe can be explained by the fact that the crew travelled as many hours as possible each day, and rested for only a very short period, so that rapid erection of shelter lengthened both the periods of travel and of rest.

Yet these practical considerations do not always explain the end-forms found in bark canoes. Canoes with relatively high ends were used in open waters, and similar canoes were portaged extensively. Possibly the Indian's consciousness of tribal distinctions led him to retain some feature, such as height of the end-forms, as a means of tribal recognition, even though practical considerations required its suppression to some degree.

The profile of the gunwales also varied a good deal among tribal types. Most bark canoes, because of the raised end-forms, showed a short, sharp upsweep of the sheer close to the bow and stern. Some showed a marked hump, or upward sweep, amidships which made the sheer profile follow somewhat the form of a cupid's bow. Many types had a straight, or nearly straight, sheer; others had an orthodox sheer, with the lowest part nearly amidships.

The bottom profiles of bark canoes showed varying degrees of curvature. In some the bottom was straight for most of its length, with a slight rise toward the ends. In others the bottom showed a marked curvature over its full length, and in a few the bottom was practically straight between the points at which the stems were formed. Some northwestern types had a slightly hogged bottom, but in these the wooden framework was unusually flexible, so that the bottom became straight, or even a little rockered when the canoe was afloat and manned.

The practical reasons for these bottom forms are not clear. For canoes used in rapid streams or in exposed waters where high winds were to be met many Indians preferred bottoms that were straight. Others in these same conditions preferred them rockered to varying degrees. It is possible that rocker may be desirable in canoes that must be run ashore end-on in surf. Of course, a strongly rockered bottom permits quick turning; this may have been appreciated by some tribal groups. Still other Indians appear to have believed that a canoe with a slightly rockered bottom could be paddled more easily than one having a perfectly straight bottom.

The midsections of bark canoes varied somewhat in form within a single tribal type, because the method of construction did not give absolute control of the sectional shape during the building, but, on the whole, the shape followed tribal custom, being modified only to meet use requirements. Perhaps the two most common midsection shapes were the U-form, with the bottom somewhat flattened, and the dish-shape, having rather straight, flaring sides combined with a narrow, flat, or nearly flat bottom. Some eastern canoes showed marked tumble-home in the topside above the bilge; often they had a wide and rather flat rounded bottom, with a short, hard turn in the bilge. A few eastern canoes, used mainly in open waters along the coast, had bottoms with deadrise—that is, a shallow V-form, the apex of the V being much rounded; the V-bottom, of course, would have aided in steering the canoe in strong winds. One type of canoe with this rising bottom had tumble-home topsides, but another, used under severe conditions, had a midsection that was an almost perfect V, the apex being rounded but with so little curvature in the arms that no bilge could be seen.

Generally speaking, the eastern canoes had a rather well rounded bottom with a high turn of the bilge and some tumble-home above, though they might have a flatter form when built for shallow-water use or for increased carrying capacity. A canoe built for speed, however, might be very round on the bottom, and it might or might not have some tumble-home in the topside. In the West, a flat bottom with flaring topsides predominated; fast canoes there had a very narrow, flat bottom with some flare, the width of the bottom and the amount of flare being increased to give greater capacity on a shallow draft. Some canoes in the Northwest had a skiff-form flat bottom and flaring sides, with the chine rounded off sharply.

The form of the sections near the ends of a canoe are controlled to a great extent by the form of midsection. In canoes having flat bottoms combined with flaring sides this form was usually carried to the ends, where it became a rather sharp V, giving fine lines for speed when the canoe was light, and only moderately increased resistance when it was loaded. Among eastern canoes having tumble-home topsides, the midsection form could be carried to the ends, gradually becoming sharper in canoes having "chin" in the profiles of the ends; in canoes having no chin, the sections necessarily took a pointed oval form close to the ends. A few canoes having flaring sides and chin ends showed a similar change in form. In all, however, the bow and stern showed a tendency toward fullness near the waterline.

Canoes with a strongly U-shaped midsection commonly carried this form to the ends, with increasing sharpness in the round of the U. The U-form predominated in the end-sections of eastern canoes, of course, though a few showed a V-form, as must be expected. The fairing of the end sections into the end profiles appears to have controlled this matter. The outline of the gunwales, in plan view, also influenced the form of the end-sections and of the level lines there. Some canoes, when viewed from above, showed a pinched-in form at the ends, this was caused by the construction of the gunwales or by the projection of the end-profile forms beyond the ends of the true structural gunwale members. Such canoes would have a very strong hollow in the level lines projected through their hull-form below the gunwales, and this could have been accentuated by any strong chin in the bow and stern shapes. On the other hand, many canoes showed no hollow, and the level lines were straight for some distance inboard of the ends, or were slightly convex. Full, convex level lines will appear below the waterline in canoes having a strongly rockered bottom.

It should be noted that the Indians were aware that very sharp-ended canoes usually were fast under paddle; hence they employed this characteristic in any canoe where high speed was desired. However, the degree of sharpness in the gunwales and at the level lines is not always the same at both ends, though the variation is sometimes too slight to be detected without careful measurement; it may at times have been accidental, but in many cases it appears to have been intentional.

Some eastern canoes having their greatest width, or beam, on the gunwales at midlength had finer level lines aft than forward, apparently to produce trim by the stern when afloat and manned. This made them steer well in rough water. Some northwestern canoes had their greatest beam abaft the midlength, giving them a long, sharp bow; the run was sometimes formed by sweeping up the bottom aft to a shallow stern, as well as by the double-ended form of the canoe. Despite a general similarity in the form of the ends, in some canoes the bow was marked by its greater height, in others, by the manner in which the bark was lapped at the seams, or by the manner of decoration. In a few with ends exactly alike the bow was indicated by the fitting of the thwarts such as, for example, by placing at the forward end a particular style of thwart, intended to hold the torch used in spearing fish at night, or to support a mast and sail.

In examining the lines, or model, of a bark canoe, the limitations imposed upon the builder by the characteristics of bark must be considered. The degree of flexibility, the run of the grain, and the toughness and elasticity of the bark used all influenced the form of canoes. The marked chin in the ends of some canoes, for example, resulted from an effort to offset the tendency of birch bark to split when a row of stitches lay in the same line of grain. The curved chin profile allowed the stitching to cross a number of lines of grain. Sometimes this tendency was avoided by incorporating battens into the coarse stitching; this style of sewing was particularly useful in piecing out birch bark for width in a canoe, where the sewing had to be in line with the grain. The Indians also employed alternating short and long stitching in some form for the same purpose. Spruce bark, as used in canoes in the extreme North and Northwest, could be sewn in much the same manner as birch bark, but with due regard for the longitudinal grain of the spruce bark.

The joining of two pieces of bark by root sewing or lacing, combined with the use of spruce gum to obtain watertightness, formed a seam that could be readily damaged by abrasion from launching the canoe, from pulling it ashore, or from grounding it accidentally. For this reason, seams below the waterline were kept at a minimum and were never placed along the longitudinal centerline of the bottom, where they would have formed a sharp apex to both the V-shaped midsection and to the deadrise bottom form. Likewise, a seam was not used in forming the rocker of the bottom. Though seams had to be used to join the bark at bow and stern, the form of the canoe allowed the seams to be greatly strengthened and protected there.

The restrictions on form imposed by barks such as elm, chestnut, and hickory were very great. These barks, which are not as elastic as birch bark, were sometimes employed in a single large sheet. The sheets were not joined for length; canoes of this material were often formed by crimping, or lap folding, rather than by cutting out gores and then sewing the edges together. The characteristics of these barks can readily be demonstrated with a sheet of paper: such a sheet can be made into a crude canoe-form by bending it lengthwise and joining the ends, but it will be obvious that the midsection takes a very unstable U-form. By forcing the ends inward to give a ram, or chin, effect to bow and stern, a somewhat flatter bottom can be obtained in the midsection. By crimping or folding the paper gore-fashion near each end of the canoe-form at the gunwale edge, some rocker is created in the bottom and the width of the gunwales is increased near the ends, giving more capacity. But without the crimping along the gunwale, when the midsection form is flattened on the bottom, the latter tends to hog. Many of these bark canoes utilized both the rams ends and crimping to obtain a more useful form. However, while a sheet of birch bark could be crimped or gored into a scow-form canoe such as the Asiatic birch-bark canoe, no example of this form from North America is known. On this continent all bark canoes were sharp at both ends, i.e., double-ended, although a number of North American dugouts were scow-(or punt-) shaped.

Figure 22

Canoe formed (a) without crimping or goring sides, showing hogged bottom; and (b) with ram ends to reduce hogging of bottom.

Figure 23

Canoe formed (a) by crimping sides, showing rockered bottom line, and (b) by simple gores in sides. The same effects are obtained by making bark cover of three pieces: sides and bottom.

Birch bark gave much more freedom in the selection of form simply because it could be joined together in small odd-sized sheets to shape a hull, and because it was elastic enough to allow some "moulding" by pressure of the framework employed. Birch bark could be gored, or slashed, and rejoined without resort to folding or crimping; thus it permitted a smooth exterior surface to be achieved. The toughness of the bark was sufficient to allow some sewing in line with the grain, to add to the width of a sheet, if the proper technique were employed (this was also true to a lesser extent of spruce bark).

Figure 24

Canoe Formed by use of gores and panels.

The framework of most bark canoes depended upon the gunwale structure to give longitudinal strength to the hull; for this reason the structure was made sufficiently large in cross-section to be rather stiff, or was formed of more than one member. An inner and outer gunwale construction was employed in many bark canoes. The inner member was the strength member and was sometimes square, or nearly so, in cross-section. In some canoes bark was brought up on the outside of this gunwale member, lapped over the top, and lashed over it; in others the bark was lashed to both inner and outer gunwales. The outer gunwale, a rectangular-sectioned batten bent narrow-edge up, was applied like a guard, outside the bark, and was secured by pegs, by the lashings of the bark cover, or by widely spaced lashings. On top of the large inner gunwale and usually extending outward over the outer gunwale, a thin cap, pegged or lashed in the same manner as the outer gunwale, was sometimes added; this was intended to protect the lashing of the bark to the gunwale rather than to add longitudinal strength.

The corners of the inner gunwale, or of the single gunwale, were all rounded off to prevent them from cutting the sewing and lashings. The bottom outboard corner was sometimes rounded off more than the other, or beveled, in order to form between the outboard face of the gunwale and the bark a slot into which the heads of the ribs could be forced. An alternate method of accomplishing this was to notch or drill holes in the gunwales for the heads of the ribs.

The ends of the gunwales were fashioned in various ways. In some canoes the gunwales were sheered upward at the ends only slightly, the gunwale ends being secured to wide end boards in the stems or extended past them and secured to the stem-pieces. The apparent sheer in the latter might be formed by bending the outer gunwale, or outwale, and the cap (if one existed) to the required curve and then securing the ends to the stem-piece, or to the end boards, as the form of end profile dictated. If either the single gunwale or the outwale or both were sharply sheered, they were split, to a point near the end thwart, into two or four or even more laminations; even the rail cap, which was perhaps half an inch thick, might be split in the same manner to allow a sharp upward sweep at the stems. After being bent, the split members were temporarily wrapped to hold the laminations together. In no bark canoes did the ends of the gunwales curve back on themselves to form a hook just inboard of the bow and stern, despite the numerous pictures that show this feature. The gunwale ends sometimes projected almost perpendicularly upward, slightly above the top of the bow and stern, so that when the canoe was upside down its weight came on these rather than on the sewing of the ends of the craft.

Figure 25

Gunwale Ends nailed and wrapped with spruce roots. (Sketch by Adney.)

The gunwale ends in some canoes were fastened together by means of one or more lashings, often widely spaced. After being lashed together, a narrow wedge was sometimes driven between the two gunwales from inboard to tighten the lashings. The ends were sometimes beveled on their bearing surfaces so as to make a neat appearance when joined. The various ways in which the gunwale ends at stem and stern were finished can best be described when individual types are under examination. Some canoes had a small piece of bark over the ends of the gunwales but under the outwales that held it in place. Whether these pieces were employed to protect the lashing of the gunwales and adjoining work from the weather, or whether they were the vestigial remains of a decking once used, cannot be determined. In the Canadian Northwest the ends of bark canoes were sometimes decked with bark for a short distance inboard.

Figure 26

Gunwales and Stakes on Building Bed, plan view. (Sketch by Adney.)

The bark was secured to the gunwales by a continuous spiral lashing all along the main gunwale or by separated lashing in series. In the first, the continuous lashing, where it passed through the bark, might show regularly spaced separations to avoid the tops of the ribs. In the second, the lashings were placed clear of the ribs. There were some slight variations in the lashings, but these were of minor importance so far as structural strength is concerned. In all cases, the bark was brought up to or over the top of the gunwale before being secured, so that the holes for the lashing were pierced at some distance from the edge of the bark to prevent it from splitting.

The ends of the thwarts were mortised into the gunwales and also secured by lashings. The number of thwarts varied with the tribal type, the size, and the purpose of the canoe. Usually an odd number, from three to nine, were used, though occasional canoes had two or four thwarts. Very small canoes for hunting might have only two or three thwarts, but most canoes 14 to 20 feet long had five. Canoes intended for portaging usually had one thwart at midlength to aid in lifting the canoe for the carry position. The distance between the thwarts might be determined by structural design, or might be fixed so as to divide the cargo space to allow proper trim. The thwarts might serve as backrests for passengers, but were never used as seats. There was no standard form for the shape of the thwarts, which varied not only to some degree by tribal classification, but even among builders in single tribe. They were usually thickest and widest over the centerline of the canoe, tapering outboard and then spreading again at the gunwales to form a marked shoulder at the mortise. The lashings to the gunwales often passed through two or more holes in this shoulder.

The ribs, or frames, of most canoes were very closely spaced and were wide, flat, and thin. They ran in a single length from gunwale to gunwale. In canoes having V-sections near the ends, the ribs were often so sharply bent as to be fractured slightly. Across the bottom they were wide but above the bilge they tapered in width toward the end, which was either a rounded point or a beveled or rounded chisel-edge. The ribs were forced under the gunwales so that the heads fitted into the bevel, or into notches or holes at the underside and outboard edge of the gunwale, between it and the bark cover. By canting the rib to bring its ends into the proper position and then forcing it nearly perpendicular, the builder brought enough pressure on the bark cover to mold it to the required form. Bulging of the bark at each frame was prevented by a thin plank sheathing. The ribs in many Eastern canoes were spaced so that on the bottom they were separated only by a space equal to the width of a rib.

Each piece of sheathing, better described as a "splint" than as "planking," was commonly of irregular form. The edges were often beveled to a marked thinness. While some builders laid the sheathing edge-to-edge in the bark cover, others overlapped the edges. Nearly all builders feathered the butts and overlapped them slightly. The sheathing was held in position by a number of light temporary ribs while the permanent frames, or ribs, were being installed. It is to be noted that the sheathing was neither lashed nor pegged; it remained fixed in place only through the pressure of the bent ribs and the restraint of the bark skin.

The exact method of fitting the sheathing varied somewhat from area to area, but not in every instance from tribe to tribe. The bottom sheathing used by some eastern Indians was in two lengths. The individual pieces were tapered toward the stems and the edges butted closely together. The sides were in three lengths, but otherwise similarly fitted. The butts lapped very slightly. In a second method, used to the westward, the sheathing was laid edge-to-edge in two lengths, with the butts slightly lapped. The center members of the bottom, usually five, were parallel-sided, but the outboard ends of those at the turn of the bilges were beveled, or snied, off. The members further outboard were in one length, with both ends snied off. The bottom thus appeared as an elongated diamond-form. The topside sheathing was fitted as in the first instance.

Figure 27

Gunwale Lashings, examples made by Adney: 1, Elm-bark, Malecite; 2, St. Francis; 3, Algonkin; 4, Malecite.

Figure 28

Gunwale-End Lashings, examples made by Adney: Athabascan (large), Ojibway (small).

A variation in the second style used three lengths in the centerline sheathing. In still another variation a centerline piece was laid in two lengths without taper, the next outboard piece was then cut in the shape of a broad-based triangle, and the rest were laid in two lengths, with the sides parallel to the sides of the triangular strake and with their ends snied off against the centerline pieces. In a fourth style short pieces, roughly elongate-oval in shape, were overlapped on all sides and laid irregularly so that when in place they appeared "thrown in." With this style, the midship section was laid first and secured by a temporary rib, then the next toward the ends, with the butts shoved under the ends of the middle section. The next series was similarly laid so that the top member of each butt-lap faced toward the ends of the hull and was under a rib. The ends were not cut square across, but were either blunt-pointed or rounded. Five lengths of sheathing were often used, and the widths of the individual pieces of sheathing were rarely the same, so the seams were not lined up and presented an irregular appearance in the finished canoe. The sheathing was thin enough to allow it to take the curve of the bilge easily.

Figure 29

Splints Arranged in various ways to sheath the bottom of a canoe: 1, Micmac, Malecite; 2, Central Cree, Têtes de Boule, etc.; 3, Montagnais; 4, Algonkin, Ojibway, etc.

If the sheathing was lapped, the overlap was always slight. In some old canoes a small space was left between the edges of the sheathing, particularly in the topsides. In some northwestern bark canoes there was no sheathing; these used a batten system somewhat like that in the Eskimo kayak, except that in the bark canoes the battens were not lashed to the ribs, being held in place only by pressure. These kayak-like bark canoes had a bottom framework formed with chine members; some had a rigid bottom frame of this type, while others had bottom frames secured only by rib pressure. The purpose of the sheathing, it should be noted, was to protect the bark cover from abrasion from the inside, to prevent the ribs from bulging the bark, and to back up the bark so as to resist impacts; but in no case, even when battens were employed, as in the Northwest, did the sheathing add to the longitudinal strength of the bark canoe. The principle of the stressed rib and clamped sheathing, which is the most marked characteristic in the construction of the North American Indian bark canoe, is fundamentally different from that used in the construction of the Eskimos' skin craft.

A wide variety of framing methods are exhibited in the construction of the ends, or stems, of bark canoes. In the temporary types of the East, the bark was trimmed to a straight, slightly "ram" form and secured by sewing over two battens, one outboard on each side. Birch-bark canoes of the East usually had an inside stem-piece bent by the lamination method to the desired profile, the heel being left unsplit; as usual, the laminations were spirally wrapped, often with basswood-bark thongs. The stem-piece was then placed between the bark of the sides, and the bark and wood were lashed together with an over-and-over stitch. Sometimes variations of the short-and-long form of stitch were used here, and some builders also placed a halved-root batten over the ends of the bark before lashing to form a stem-band as protection to the seam. In some canoes the end lashing passed through holes drilled in the stem-pieces, often with the turns alternating in some regular manner through and around the stem-piece.

The stem-pieces were generally very light, and in some canoes the head was notched and sharply bent down and inboard, so that it could be secured to the ends of the gunwales. Some tribal types had no inner stem-piece, and the stem profiles were strengthened merely by the use of two split-root or halved-sapling battens, one on each side, outside the bark and under the sewing.

Figure 30

End Details, Including Construction of Stem-Pieces and fitting of bark over them, ending of gunwale caps at stem heads, and the headboard, with its location. Lamination of the stem pieces shows fewer laminae than is common. (Sketches by Adney.)

Birch-bark canoes to the westward used battens under the end lashing as well as rather complicated inside stem-pieces. In some parts of the West and Northwest, the ends were formed of boards set up on edge fore-and-aft, the bark being lashed through all, with the boards projecting slightly outboard of the ends of the bark cover to form a cutwater.

To support the inside stem-piece, some form of headboard was usually fitted near each end after the sheathing was in place. These were shaped to the cross-section of the canoe so as to form bulkheads. In some canoes, these miniature bulkheads stood vertical, but in others they were curved somewhat to follow the general curve of the end-profile, and this caused them to be shaped more like a batten than a bulkhead. Bent headboards were sometimes stepped so as to rake outboard. Sometimes the form of the headboard permitted the gunwale members to be lashed to it, and often there was a notch for the main gunwale on each side.

The headboards were sometimes stepped on the unsplit heel of the stem-piece; a notch was made in the bottom of the headboard to allow this. In two types of canoe in which there was no inner stem-piece, the headboards were stepped on short keel pieces, or "frogs," fore-and-aft on the bottom and extending slightly forward of the end of the sheathing to reinforce the forefoot. The purpose of the headboard was to strengthen the stem-piece, and in many cases it was an integral member of the end structure itself and helped to maintain its form. The headboard usually served to support the gunwale ends in some manner, it stretched the bark smooth near the stems, and it secured the ends of the sheathing where support from a rib would have been most difficult to obtain. Many canoes had the space between the headboard and the stem-piece stuffed with shavings, moss, or other dry material to help mold the bark to form beyond the sheathing in the ends. Some tribal groups decorated the headboards.

In a few canoes, the stem-piece was additionally supported by a short, horizontal member stepped in the forward face of the headboard and projecting forward to bear on the after side of the stem-piece. The latter was sometimes bent back onto itself above this member to form a loop around the top of the end-profile, and the gunwale ends or a part of the gunwale structure were secured to it. This complicated bending of the stem-piece, in conjunction with use of a headboard and a brace member, served to stiffen the end structure sufficiently to meet the requirements of service.

Figure 31

Malecite Canoe of the Type Described in This Chapter. This 2½ fathom St. John River canoe represents the last Malecite birch-bark model, and usually was fastened with tacks and nails, rather than with root lashings and pegs as described here.

The use of a bark cover over the gunwale ends has already been mentioned. In some eastern canoes, this was placed under the cap and outwale pieces and extended below the latter in a shallow flap on which the owner's mark or other decoration might appear; the flap was in fact a kind of name board. Such flaps do not appear on the partly decked bark canoes of the Northwest.

This general description of the structure of the bark canoes is sufficient to permit the explanation of the actual construction of a bark canoe to be more readily understood, and it also serves to illustrate the close connection between the method of construction and the formation of the lines, or model, of bark canoes. From the description, too, it can be seen that while the shape of a bark canoe was partially planned during the construction the control of every part of the model could not be maintained with the same degree of precision as in the building of an Eskimo skin boat or an Indian dugout.

Construction

One aspect of canoe construction, the Indian method of making measurements, was briefly mentioned (p. [8]) under a discussion of the origin of the measurement known in French Canada as the brasse. This was the distance from finger-tip to finger-tip of the arms outstretched; in the fur trade in English times it was known as the fathom and it appears to have been about 64 inches, or less than the nautical fathom of 6 feet. Other measurements used were the greatest width of the ball of the thumb, which is very close to an English inch, and the width of the four fingers, each finger-breadth being close to three-fourths of an English inch. The length of the forearm, usually from the knuckles of the clenched hand to the elbow, was also employed by some Indians, as a convenient measurement.

Measurements in these units might be memorized and used in building, but many Indians used measuring sticks, and these served as "foot-rules." They were sometimes squared and were painted as well as notched.

A Malecite Indian, interviewed in 1925, had three such sticks for canoe building. One, for the length of the gunwale frame, was half the total length required; it was notched to show the distance at which the ends of the gunwales were lashed and also the position of the thwarts. Such a stick would be about 7 feet long for a 16-foot canoe, 8 feet for an 18-foot canoe. The second stick was notched to show half the length of each of the thwarts. The third stick had notches showing the height of the gunwale at each thwart and at the end, four notches in all for the half-length of the canoe. This stick measured from the surface of the building bed, not from a regular base line.

The method of measuring canoes appears to have been fairly well standardized, at least in historical times. As stated earlier, length was commonly taken over the gunwales only, and did not include the end profiles, which might extend up to a foot or slightly more beyond the gunwale ends, bow and stern. However, in certain old records the overall length is given, and in various areas other methods of measurement existed. Where a building frame was used, the given length of the canoe was the length of this frame; usually this approximated the length of the gunwales. The width of a canoe was measured by the Indian from inside to inside of the main gunwale members. The extreme beam might be only 2 or 3 inches greater than the inside measurement of the gunwales, but if the sides bulged out, the beam might actually be 6 or more inches greater. The depth was usually measured from the inside of the ribs to the top of the gunwale but in building it was measured from the surface of the building bed to the bottom of the main gunwales, as noted above in the description of the measuring sticks.

Thus it will be seen that the Indian measurements constituted a statement of dimensions primarily useful to the builder, for their main purpose was to fix the proportions rather than establish the actual length, width, and depth. Today we state the length of a canoe in terms of extreme overall measurement; the Indian was inclined to state the length in building terms, giving dimensions applicable to the woodwork only, just as the old-time shipbuilder gave the keel length of a vessel instead of the overall length on deck.

The building site was carefully selected. The space in which the canoe was to be set up had to be smooth, free of stones and roots or anything that might damage the bark, and the soil had to be such that stakes driven into it would stand firmly. A shady place was preferred, as the bark would not dry there as fast as in sunlight. Since the construction of a canoe required both time and the aid of the whole Indian family, the site had to be close to a suitable place for camping, where food and water could be obtained. It is not surprising, therefore, to find canoe building sites that apparently had been used by generations of Indians.

The preparation of the building bed was controlled by the intended form of the canoe to be built. If the bottom of the canoe was to be rockered, the cleared ground was brought to a flat surface for the length required for setting up the canoe. If the rocker was to be great, the middle of the bed would be slightly depressed. If the bottom was to be straight fore-and-aft, or very nearly so, the bed was crowned from 1½ to 2 inches higher in the middle than at the ends, so that the canoe was first set up with a hogged bottom. Very large canoes such as were used in the fur trade required as much as 4 inches crown in the building bed. Other dimensions being equal, the amount of crown was usually somewhat greater in canoes having bulging sides than in ones having more upright or flaring sides. Canoe factories such as were operated in certain fur-trading posts sometimes had a plank building bed suitably crowned and drilled for setting the stakes.

Two methods of setting up the canoe were used. In most of the eastern area, the gunwales were put together and used to establish the plan outline of the canoe on the building bed. But a building frame was used for constructing the various narrow-bottom canoes having flaring sides, and for some other tribal forms. The frame, made in the same general form as the gunwales when assembled, but less wide and sometimes much shorter, could be taken apart easily, allowing it to be removed after the canoe was built; hence it could be used to build as many canoes as desired to the same dimensions as the first, and was retained by the builder as a tool, or pattern, for future use.

The method of construction in which gunwales only were used in setting up the canoe will be explained first in order to show the general technique of construction. Use of the building frame will then be described. Important deviations from these methods will be described in later chapters under the individual tribal types in which they occur.

The Malecite canoe, a straight-bottomed craft about 19 feet long and 36 inches beam, is used as the example, hence the method of building to be described is that generally employed in the East, where variations in construction mainly involve the use or omission of structural elements.

The gunwales are the first members to be formed. In the Malecite canoe these are the inner gunwales, as the canoe will have outwales and caps. The gunwales are split from white cedar to produce battens that will square 1½ inches when shaped. The gunwales are tapered each way from midlength, where they are 1½ inches square, to a point 3 inches short of the ends, where they are ¾ by 1 to 1¼ inches. The edges of the gunwales are all rounded, and the outboard bottom edge is beveled almost ½ inch, at 45° to the bottom of the member. The last 3 inches at each end is formed like half a blunt arrowhead, as shown in the sketch of the member on page [31]. The gunwales will be bent, side to side, on the flat as far as the ends are concerned, so the blunt arrowhead is formed on one of the wide faces of the ends as shown. The arrowhead form allows a neat joint when the gunwale ends are brought together, pegged athwartships, and then wrapped with a root lashing. In forming and finishing the gunwales, a good deal of care is required to get them to bend alike, so that the centerline of the finished frame will be straight and true.

To take the ends of the middle thwart, a mortise ¼ by 2 inches is cut in each gunwale member athwartships at exactly midlength, the length of the mortise being with the run of the gunwale. In it, the middle thwart, 33 inches long, is fitted. Made of a ⅞-inch by 3-inch piece of hard maple, the thwart tapers slightly in thickness each way from its center to within 5 inches of the shoulders, which are 30 inches apart. The thickness at a point 5 inches from the shoulder is ¾ inch; from there the taper is quick to the shoulder, which is ⁵⁄₁₆ inch thick, with a drop to ¼ inch in the tenon. The width, 3 inches at the center, decreases in a graceful curve to within 5 inches of the shoulder, where it is 2 inches, then increases to about 3 inches at the shoulder. The width of the tenon is, of course, 2 inches, to fit the mortise hole in the gunwale. The edges of the outer 5 inches of the thwart are rounded off or beveled a good deal; inboard they are only slightly rounded.

The thwart is carefully fitted to the gunwale members and the ends are pegged. Some builders wedged the ends of this thwart from outside the gunwales, the wedge standing vertical in the thwart so that the gunwale would not split; however, it is not certain that wedging was used in prehistoric times, although it is seen in some existing old canoes. The pegs used in this canoe are driven from above, into holes bored through the gunwale and the tenon of the thwart to lock all firmly together. Three holes are then bored in the broad shoulders of the thwart about 1½ inches inboard of gunwale for the root lashing that is also used.

The ends of the gunwale members are now brought together, and to avoid an unfair curve appearing at the thwart in place, short pieces of split plank or of sapling, notched to hold them in place, are inserted between the gunwale members as temporary thwarts at points about 5 feet on each side of the middle thwart. After the ends are brought together and the final fitting is carried out, a peg is driven athwartships the ends and a single-part root lashing is carefully wrapped around the assembly.

Some canoe builders omitted the blunted half-arrowhead form at the gunwale end. Instead, the inside faces were tapered to allow the two parts to bear on one another for some distance. The gunwales were then pinched together and lashed with one or more wrappings. Finally, a thin wedge was sometimes driven from inboard between the two gunwale ends to tighten the wrappings. The wedges were usually so carefully fitted as to be difficult to identify. It is probable that this wedged gunwale ending represents the prehistoric form, and the blunted half-arrowhead ending is a result of the use of steel tools.

After the ends of the gunwales have been securely fastened together, the first pair of permanent thwarts is fitted. These are located 36 inches, center to center, on each side of the middle thwart, a distance that determines the centers of the mortises in each gunwale member. Each thwart, made from a ¾-inch by 3-inch piece, tapers smoothly in thickness from the ¾-inch center to the ⁵⁄₁₆-inch shoulder. The tenon is of the same dimensions as that of the middle thwart, the width takes the same form as that of the middle thwart, and the edges are similarly beveled and rounded. The distance between the shoulders, taken along the centerline, is 22½ inches, and the centerline length of the thwart 25½ inches. However, the shoulders and ends of the tenons must be bevelled to follow the curve of the gunwales hence the extreme length of the thwart is actually very close to 26 inches. The worker determines the bevel of the shoulders by fitting the thwart to the run of the gunwales, the temporary thwarts being shifted so that the distance between the gunwales equals that set by the measuring stick. These two thwarts having been fitted, the tenons are pegged as before, but in the shoulders only one lashing hole is bored instead of the three employed in the middle thwart.

Figure 32

Malecite Canoe Building, 1910. (Canadian Geological Survey photos.)

Weighting gunwales on bark cover on building bed.

Resetting stakes.

Shaping bark cover and securing it to stakes.

Figure 33

First Stage of Canoe Construction: assembled gunwale frame is used to locate stakes temporarily on building bed. Instead of the gunwales, a building frame was used in some areas. (Sketch by Adney.)

The second pair of thwarts is placed 30 inches, center to center, from the first pair, one at each end, and on the basis of this measurement the tenons are cut as for the others. These two thwarts are made of ⅝-by 4-inch pieces tapering in thickness each way from the center to the shoulder, where they are a scant ⁵⁄₁₆ inch thick, the tenons having the same dimensions as in the other thwarts. In width the thwarts are worked to an even 3 inches from shoulder to shoulder, but in the form of a curve so that when each thwart is in place its center will be bowed toward the ends of the canoe, viewed from above. As in the first pair, the shoulders and ends are cut to a bevel to fit the gunwale; at the centerline they each measure 12 inches shoulder-to-shoulder in a straight line athwartships and 15 inches end-to-end. Allowing for bevel, the maximum length is just over 15⁵⁄₁₆ inches. These thwarts are drilled for single gunwale lashings and the corner edges are well rounded from shoulder to shoulder. The distance from the centerlines of these last thwarts at the bow and stern to the extreme ends of the joined gunwales is 33 inches, so the finished gunwale length is 16 feet.

After the endmost thwarts are pegged into place, the temporary stays are removed. At each step of construction the alignment of the gunwales is checked by measuring with the measuring sticks and by sighting, since the shape of the assembled gunwales, in this case of the inner gunwales, is very important in determining the sharpness of the completed canoe and the fairness of its general form.

The assembled gunwales are now ready to be laid on the building bed which, for the Malecite canoe, is 20 feet long, about 3½ feet wide and is raised about 1½ inches at midlength so that the canoe bottom will be straight when the craft is in the water. The gunwale frame having been carefully centered on this bed, with the middle thwart exactly over the highest point in the surface of the bed, some scrap split-planking is laid across the gunwales and the whole weighted down with a few flat stones. Next, 34 stakes from 30 to 50 inches long are prepared, each made of a halved length of sapling. Around the outside of the gunwale frame 26 of these are driven in pairs opposite one another across the frame, about 24 inches apart and placed so that none is opposite a thwart, except for the stakes at the extreme ends of the gunwale frame, which are spaced about a foot from their nearest neighbors and are face-to-face, about 1½ inches apart. All the stakes are driven with the flat face about an inch from the gunwale frame and parallel to its outside edge. Finally two more pairs of stakes are driven at each end, the first pair about a foot beyond the end of the gunwale frame and 1½ inches apart, the second about 6 inches beyond these and similarly spaced. The length between the outermost stakes, measured over the gunwale frame, is about 18½ feet. Great care is taken to line up the last pairs of stakes with the centerline of the gunwale frame.

Figure 34

Second Stage of Canoe Construction: stakes have been removed and laid aside, and the gunwales shown in first stage have been removed from the building bed. The bark cover is laid out on the building bed, and the gunwales are in place upon it, weighted down with stones. (Sketch by Adney.)

If the canoe is to have a slight rocker near the ends and is to be straight over the rest of the bottom, the ends of the gunwale frame will be blocked above the building bed so that the frame is not hogged on the bed.

After the builder is satisfied with the staking, each stake is carefully pulled up and laid to one side, off the bed but near its hole. The weights are then removed from the gunwale frame, which is lifted from the bed and laid aside, and the bed, if disturbed is repaired and re-leveled.

The roll of birch bark is now removed from storage, perhaps in a nearby pool where it has been placed to keep it flexible, and unrolled white side up on the building bed. As the bark dries, it will become more and more stiff, so it will be necessary to moisten it frequently during construction to maintain its flexibility.

The bark is usually long enough, but often it is not wide enough. If the bark is too short, it may be pieced out at this time, or later. If it is not wide enough it is centered on the bed; the piecing out will be done later. The gunwale frame is now laid on the bark, care being taken to place it as nearly as possible in its former position on the bed.

The bark outside the frame is then slashed from the edge to a point close to the end of each thwart, and also to points along the frame halfway between the thwarts, so that the edges can be turned up. While it is being slashed, the bark cover is bent slightly, so that it is cut under tension. Later, when the required shape can be determined, these slashes will be made into gores, the Malecite canoes having flush seams, not overlaps, in the topsides and bottom. If a fault is noted along the outer edge of the bark, a slash may be placed so as to allow the fault to be cut out in the later goring; irregularity in the position of the cuts does no great harm to the progress of building these canoes. The slashes are usually carried to within an inch of the gunwales on the bed. It is not customary to slash the bark close to the end, there the bark can usually be brought up unbroken, depending upon the form of the end.

When the bark has been cut as described, it can be turned up smoothly all around the frame so that the stake holes can be seen and a few of the stakes can be replaced. The frame and the bark are then realigned so that all stakes may be replaced in their holes without difficulty. When the frame and bark are aligned, the frame is weighted as before and the bark is turned up all around it, the stakes being firmly driven, as this is done, in their original holes. The longest stakes are at the ends of the frame, as the depth of the hull is to be greatest there. The tops of each pair of opposite stakes are now tied together with a thong of basswood or cedar bark, to hold them rigid and upright.

Figure 35

Malecite Canoe Builders Near Fredericton, N.B., using wooden plank building bed with stakes set in holes in the platform. This was a late method of construction, which probably originated in the early French canoe factory at Trois Rivières, Que.

After the bark is turned up around the frame, its lack of width becomes fully apparent. At this stage, some builders fitted the additional pieces to gain the necessary width; others did it later. The method of piecing the bark cover and the sewing technique, however, is explained here.

The bark is pieced out with regard to the danger of abrasion that would occur when the canoe is moving through obstructions in the water, or when it is rolled or hauled ashore and unloaded. If the bark is to be lapped below the waterline, the thickness of the bark of both pieces in the lap is scraped thin so a ridge will not be formed athwart the bottom; here, however, most tribes used edge-to-edge joining. If there are laps in the topsides, the exposed edge is toward the stern; if in the midlength, upward toward the gunwale; and if it is in the end the lap may be toward the bottom, because this makes it easier to sew, and because in the ends of the canoe there is less danger of serious abrasion. Many tribes used edge-to-edge joining everywhere in the topsides so that the direction of lapping was not a matter of consideration. The type of goring, whether by slash and lap or by cutting out a V-shaped gore, will, of course, have much to do with the selection of the method of sewing to be used.

It is to be recalled that in canoe building no needle was used in sewing the bark; the ends of the root strands were sharpened and used to thread the strand through the awl holes. Much of the topside sewing in a bark canoe was done with small strands made by splitting small roots in half and then flattening the halves by scraping. Large root strands quartered and prepared in the same manner, or the cores of these, were sometimes used in heavy sewing or lashing at the gunwale or in the ends of a canoe.

As noted previously, root thongs were used well water-soaked or quite green, for they became very stiff and rather brittle as they dried out. Once in place, however, the drying did not seem to destroy their strength. Rawhide was also used for such sewing by some tribes.

The sewing was done by Indian women, if their help was available, and the forms of stitching used in canoe building varied greatly. The root sewing at the ends of the canoes ranged from a simple over-and-over spiral form to elaborate and decorative styles. Long-and-short stitching in a sequence that usually followed some formal pattern was widely used. Among the patterns were such arrangements as one long, four short, and one long; or two longs, two or three shorts, and two longs; or one short, five of progressively increasing length, and then one short; or six progressively longer followed by six progressively shorter. Cross-stitching, employing the two ends of the sewing root as in the lacing of a shoe was also common. Sometimes this was combined with a straight-across double-strand pass to join the ends of the X. The harness stitch, in which both ends of the sewing root were passed in opposite directions through the same holes, was often used, as was the 2-thong in-and-out lacing from each side used in northwestern canoes having plank stem-pieces.

If the root strand was too short to complete a seam, instead of being spliced or knotted the end was tucked back under the last turns or stitches, on the inside of the bark cover. In starting, the tail was placed under the first turn of the stitch, so that it could not be pulled through. To finish sewing with double-ended strands, as in the harness stitch, both ends were tucked under the last turn or two.

Commonly two or more turns were taken through a single hole in the bark; this might be done to clear some obstruction such as a frame head at the gunwale, or to provide a stronger stitch, or turn, as in the harness stitch and others, or to allow for greater spacing between awl holes in the bark. (Since the awl blade was tapered, the size of the hole it made in the bark could be regulated by the depth of penetration of the blade as it was turned in the hole.)

The length of stitches varied with the need for strength and watertightness. Long stitches were about I inch, short stitches from about ⅜ to ½ inch in length. The run of the grain, of course, was a consideration in the length of stitch used.

Figure 36

Sewing: two common styles of root stitching used in bark canoes.

The piecing of the side panels was done with a great variety of sewing styles, according to strength requirements. The strain put upon the bark in molding it by rib pressure was greater in the midlength than in the ends; and the sewing differed accordingly. The over-and-over spiral, with a batten under the sewing, was used for sewing in the midlength, as was back-stitching, a variety of basting stitch in which a new pass is started about half way between stitches, thus forming overlapped passes or turns. Back-stitching was usually done in a direction slightly diagonal to the line of sewing, so as to cross the grain of the bark at an angle with each pass. The double-thong in-and-out stitch, in which each thong goes through the same hole from opposite sides, was frequently used. The simple, spiral over-and-over stitch was used in sewing panels in the ends of canoes, as was the simple, in-and-out basting stitch using either a single or double strand.

When the sides were pieced out edge-to-edge, the sewing was usually done spirally, over and over a narrow, thin batten placed outside the bark cover. This batten might be either a thin split sapling or, more commonly, a split and thinned piece of root. If the pieced-out sides were lapped, then the harness stitch was commonly used. The lap might be some inches wide to decrease the danger of splitting while the bark was being punched with the awl, afterward the surplus was cut away leaving about a half inch of overlap. On rare occasions the strength of a lapped-edge seam was increased by the use of a parallel row of stitching.

Figure 37

Comparison of Canoe on the Building Bed (above), with gunwales or building frame weighted down by stones inside bark cover, and (below) canoe when first removed from building bed during fifth stage of construction. (Sketches by Adney.)

In making the canoe watertight, it is to be remembered that some forms of stitch make the bark lie up tight all along its edges while others bind only where the stitch crosses the seam. The in-and-out stitch, which was used only above the waterline, cannot be pulled up hard without causing the bark to pucker and split and cannot be made very watertight with gum. The over-and-over stitch, in either a spiral form or square across the seam on the outside and diagonally on the inside, is very strong; when a batten is used under the stitches it can be pulled up hard and allows a very watertight gumming. When this style of sewing is used without a batten across the run of the grain, as in the gore seams, it cannot be pulled up as hard, but will serve. Back-stitching, which was much used in the topsides, can be pulled up quite hard and makes a tight seam when gummed, as do the harness stitch and cross-stitch. The ends, regardless of the style of sewing used, were more readily made tight by gumming than the other seams in a bark canoe.

Two basic methods, with some slight and unimportant variations, were used to fasten the bark to the gunwales. One employed a continuous over-and-over stitch, the other employed groups of lashings. On a canoe with the lashing continuous along the gunwales, the turns were made two or more times through the same hole on each side of each rib head to allow space for them. This might also be done where the lashing was in groups, as described above. Usually, a measuring stick was used to space the groups between thwart ends so that each group came between the rib heads. The groupings could be independent lashings, or the strand could be carried from one group to another. If the latter, it was passed along under the gunwale in a number of in-and-out stitches or in a single lone stitch either inside or out, or else it was brought around over the gunwale from the last full turn. Some tribes use both ends of the lashing, passing them through the same hole in the bark from opposite directions below the gunwales; the ends might be carried in the same manner in a long stitch to the next group. In some elm and other bark canoes employing basswood or cedar-bark lashings the bark was tied with a single turn at wide intervals; when roots were used in these, however, small groupings of stitches were customary. When group lashings were used with birch bark, the intervals between groups was usually relatively short, though in a few canoes the groups and intervals were of nearly equal length.

Figure 38

Third Stage of Canoe Construction: the bark cover is shaped on the building bed. The gores have been cut; part of the cover is shaped and secured by stakes and battens. "A" shows battens secured by sticks lashed to stakes. (Sketch by Adney.)

In an independent group, the ends of the strand were treated as in whipping, the tail being under the first turns made and the end tucked back under the last—usually on the inside of the gunwales. Where there were inner and outer gunwales the lashing was always around both, and the tail might be jammed between them. If a cap was used on the gunwales, the lashings were always under it. The use of a knotted turn to start a lashing occurred only in the old Têtes de Boule canoes.

On the Malecite canoe, the sides are pieced out in one to three panels rather than in one long, narrow panel on each side. The panel for the midlength requires the greatest strength and is usually lapped inside the bottom bark. The latter is first trimmed straight along its edge, and the panel inserted behind it with a couple of inches of lap. Then the two pieces of bark are sewn together over a halved-root batten with an over-and-over stitch. (Other tribes used some form of the harness stitch, or a similar style, allowing great strength.) The middle panel does not extend much beyond the ends of the first pair of thwarts on each side of the middle. The next panels toward the ends are lapped outside the bottom bark and are sewn with the back-stitch. Then, if still another panel is required at each end, this too is lapped outside and is sewn in the lap with an in-and-out stitch. The ends of the panels are usually sewn with an over-and-over stitch that runs square with the seam outside and diagonally to it inside the bark. (The harness stitch was used here by some tribes, as were many forms of the cross-stitch.) The ends of the canoe and the gores have already been sewn during an earlier stage of the building process.

Once the sides are pieced out, the bark is ready to be turned up and around the gunwale frame and clamped perpendicularly. To effect this, small stakes are made by halving saplings, so that each half is about a half inch thick. The butt of each half is cut chisel-shaped, with the bevel on the flat side; the rounded face is smoothed off, and it may be tapered toward the head of the stake. Between two of the slashes a length of bark is now brought up against the outer stakes; against the bark the small, inside stake is placed with the round face of the chisel-pointed butt wedged against the outer face of the gunwale. The top is then levered against the outside stake, so that the flat face of each clamps the bark in place. The top of the inner stake is then bound to the outer.

Figure 39

Cross Section of canoe on building bed during third stage of construction (above) and fourth stage. (Sketch by Adney.)

In setting the inside stakes, care is taken that their points do not pierce the bark. No inside stakes are required at the ends, as here the outside stakes are so close together in opposing pairs as to hold the bark in a sharp fold along the centerline of the cover. This of course is also true of the stakes beyond the ends of the gunwales.

After a few lengths of bark have been thus secured, they are faired between the stakes by inserting thin strips of split sapling, or battens of wood or root, along each side of the bark, under the inside and outside stakes. These battens are placed about halfway up the upturned bark. Some builders used long wooden battens, as this gave a very fair side when enough lengths were secured upright; others got the same results with short battens, the ends of which were overlapped between a pair of stakes on each side.

Figure 40

Multiple Cross Section through one side of a canoe on the building bed: at the headboard, middle, first, and second thwarts. Gunwale is raised and supported on sheering posts set under thwarts. Crown of the building bed is shown by varying heights of bottoms of the four sections.

When the bark has been turned up and clamped, the gores may be trimmed to allow it to be sewn with edge-to-edge seams at each slash. This is usually done after the sides are faired, by moving the battens up and down as the cuts are made, then replacing them in their original position. The gores or slashes, if overlapped, are not usually sewn at this stage of construction.

With the inside stakes in place, the longitudinal battens secured, and the gores cut or the overlaps properly arranged, all is ready for sheering the gunwales. First the weights are removed from the gunwale frame so that it can be lifted. If the inside stakes have been properly made and fitted this can be done without disturbing the sides, though the ties across each pair of outside stakes may have to be slacked off somewhat. Before lifting the frame, some short posts, usually of sapling or of waste from splitting out the gunwales and thwarts, are cut in lengths determined by the measuring stick or from memory, one for each end of each thwart, and one for each end of the gunwale frame. Those under the middle thwart ends in this canoe are 7½ inches long, those under the next thwarts out from the middle will be 9 inches, those under the end thwarts will be 12 inches, and those at the gunwale ends will be 17 inches long. These posts, cut with squared butts, are laid alongside the bed. The gunwale frame is now lifted and the pair of posts to go under the middle thwart are stepped on the bark cover, the gunwale is lowered onto them, and while the frame and posts are held steady, stones are laid on a plank over the middle thwart. Next, the ends of the gunwales are held and lifted so that a pair of posts can be placed at the thwarts next out from the middle. More weights are placed over these, the operation is repeated for the end thwarts and, finally at the gunwale ends, so that the gunwales now stand on posts on the bark cover, sprung to the correct fore-and-aft sheer and steadied by the bearing of the outside of the gunwale frame on the rounded faces of the inside stakes. Now the sheer has been established and the depth of the canoe is approximated.

Figure 41

Fourth Stage of Canoe Construction: bark cover has been shaped and all stakes placed. The gunwales have been raised to sheer height; "A" indicates the sticks which fix the sheer of the gunwales; "B" indicates blocks placed under ends to form rocker. Side panels are shown in place, and cover is being sewn to gunwales. (Sketch by Adney.)

To protect the bark cover from the thrust of the weights used to ballast the frame, some builders inserted small bark or wood shields for padding under the heels of the posts. By some tribes the posts were notched on one face, to fit inside the gunwales near the thwarts, and there were also other ways of assembling the gunwales themselves.

It should be apparent that the operations just described would serve only for canoes in which the sheer had a gentle, fair sweep. For canoes in which the sheer turned up sharply at the ends, the gunwale members might have to be split into laminations and prebent to the required sheer before being assembled into the gunwale frame. To accomplish this, the laminations were scalded with boiling water until saturated and then the gunwale members were staked out on the ground or tied with cords to set the wood in the desired curves as it dried out. The laminations were then wrapped with cord and the gunwale was ready to assemble. To produce a hogged sheer, the gunwales were made of green spruce and then staked out to season in the form desired; a hogged sheer was also formed by steaming or boiling the gunwale members at midlength.

The canoe, as now erected on the building bed, has a double-ended, flat-bottomed, wall-sided form. The gunwales are sprung to the proper breadth and sheer, and the bark is standing irregularly above them. At this point, on canoes not having outwales, the bark cover was laced or lashed to the gunwales. Since the Malecite canoe has outwales, these are now made and fitted. They consist of two white cedar battens about 19½ feet long, perhaps 1 inch wide, and ½ inch thick. The face that will be the outboard side is usually somewhat rounded, as are all the corners, and the corner that will be on the inside and bottom of each batten when it is in place is somewhat beveled. The outwales are placed between the bark and the outside stakes, the inside stakes being removed one by one as this is done. The removal of the inside stakes allows room for the outwale to be inserted in their place, between the outside stakes and the inner gunwale face, and it allows the bark to be brought against the outside face of the inner gunwales. In the process of fitting the outwales, the battens along the sides may have to be removed and replaced, or shifted, and the cross-ties of each pair of outside stakes may require adjustment. Beginning at midlength, the outwale is pegged through the bark cover to the inner gunwales at intervals of 6 to 9 inches. The pegging is not carried much beyond the end thwarts in any canoe and could not be in canoes having laminated gunwales near the ends.

The Malecite canoe has bark covers over the ends of the inner gunwales, and these are now fitted so that they can be passed under the outwales and clamped in place. The ends of the outwales are forced inside the stakes at and beyond the ends of the gunwales, assuming a pinched-in appearance there, and they may reach a few inches beyond the ends of the bark cover; they will be cut and shaped to the length of the finished canoe later.

The outwale pegs are made by splitting from a balk of birch, larch, or fir roughly squared dowels about ¼ inch square and 6 to 9 inches long. Each dowel is then tapered and rounded each way from the middle to form two shanks that are between ⅛ and ³⁄₁₆ inch in diameter over 2 to 3 inches of length. The ends may be sharpened by fire. The dowels are then cut in two, providing a pair of pegs with large heads. These are driven in holes drilled through the outwales, bark cover, and gunwales, and when well home, the protruding ends are cut off flush. Toward the ends of the gunwales, the spaces between the pegs increase, and at the extreme ends, the outwale will be lashed to the gunwale by widely spaced groupings of root strand. These are usually temporary, as the final lashing of the bark to the gunwales will secure the outwales.

After the outwales are secured in place, the bark is fastened to the assembled gunwales with group lashings. In the Malecite canoe being built, these are independent, each grouping consisting of eight to ten complete turns of the root strand. The intervals between, roughly 2 inches, are usually spaced by means of a special measuring-stick to insure evenness. Before the lashing is actually begun, however, the excess bark standing above the gunwales is cut away. The bark either is trimmed flush with the top of the gunwale, or enough is left for a flap that will fully cover the top of the inner gunwale, to be turned down under the lashing. The latter method, the stronger, was used by many builders. In making the turns in the group lashings, two or three turns may be taken through a single hole in the bark; the Malecites did this to avoid having the holes too close together. The result is that the group when seen from outboard appears as a W-form, with only two or three holes in the bark for an entire group. Care is taken to lay up the turns over the gunwales neatly, turn against turn without open spacing or overlaps and crossings.

When this is completed, the ends of the thwarts can be lashed, the strand passing through the holes in the shoulders, around the two gunwale members, and through one or two holes in the bark cover. The groupings for the bark cover are spaced so that these lashings do not overlap them, and thus the lashings serve a dual purpose.

Next, the gores are usually sewn and the ends of the side panels closed. To do this, the temporary side battens outside the bark are removed. Since this is a Malecite canoe, the gores are sewn edge-to-edge with an over-and-over stitch, the strand crossing the seam square outside and diagonally inside. When these seams and those remaining in the upper panels are sewn, the rather stiff bark holds the shape formed on the building bed to a remarkable degree.

The canoe can now be raised from the building bed. To set it up at a most convenient working height, the weights are first removed from the gunwales and the remaining stakes are pulled up. The canoe is then lifted from its bed and turned upside down over a couple of logs, or crude horses. Traditionally, logs or sapling were rested across two pairs of boulders or the logs were tied between two pairs of trees at convenient distances apart. More recently, horses, formed by sticking four legs into auger holes drilled in the bottom of a 4-foot length of timber, were used. After the canoe is on its supports the ends are ready to be closed in.

The stem-pieces customarily used by the Malecite builder are formed from two clear white cedar billets a full 36 inches long and in the rough nearly 1½ inches square. The billets are first shaped so that the outboard face of each stem-piece is about ¾ inch wide, making it a truncated triangle in cross-section. Then, along lines parallel to the base of the truncated triangle, it is split into six laminations which are carried to within 6 or 7 inches of the end selected to be the heel of the stem-piece. Just clear of the laminations a notch is cut into the top side of the heel, to hold the headboard, as will be seen. The piece is then treated with boiling water until the laminations are flexible, and the curve of the stem-piece can be formed and either pegged out or tied with cords until it dries in the desired shape. When dry the laminations are tightly wrapped with basswood bark cord, leaving the form of the stem-piece a quarter arc of a circle, with short tangents at each end, as shown in the illustration (p. [35]).

Figure 42

Fifth Stage of Canoe Construction: canoe is removed from building bed and set on horse in order to shape ends and complete sewing. Bark cover has dried out in a flat-bottomed and wall-sided form. (Sketch by Adney.)

Next, the ends of the outwales are cut to a length determined by the quality of the bark already in place; if the bark in one end is not very good, it may be cut away somewhat and the canoe made shorter by this amount at both ends in finishing. After the ends of the outwales have been cut, both are notched on the inside at the extreme ends to take the head of the stem-piece. The outwales may or may not project ¼ or ½ inch beyond the stem and the stem head may project ½ or 1 inch above the top of the outwales of the canoe; these matters, at the builder's option, decide the length of the notch and the fitting of the stem-pieces.

The stem-piece is now placed between the folded bark end of the canoe with the heel resting for a small distance along its length on the bark bottom; the head must come to the right height above the outwales, as noted. While one worker holds the stem-piece in place, another trims away the excess bark at the end to the profile of the outboard face of the stem-piece. Thus the profile of each end is cut and the rake of the ends is established. The bark is next lashed to the stem-piece. In this canoe it is done with a spiral over-and-over stitch, a batten made of a large split root being placed over the edges of the bark, as the lashing proceeds, to form a stem band. The turns pass alternately from outboard around the inboard face of the stem-piece and through it; the awl inserted in the laminations from one side opens them enough to allow the strand to be forced through. Care is taken to pull up the strand very hard each time. As the outwale is approached, the bark is cut away at the notching in each so that the outwales can be brought snugly against the sides of the stem-piece. Here the strand is brought up one or two times over the outwales, abaft the stem head, before the bitter end is tucked, thus locking the outwales to the stem-piece and the bark. Then a lashing is placed around the outwales just inboard of the stem-piece, passing through a hole in the flap of the end deck-piece of bark and through the side bark. This lashing holds the outboard end of the deck piece flap. At the inboard end of the flap, another lashing is required, but the pinched-in outwales require additional securing outboard of this point; hence a lashing is passed just inboard of the middle of the flap, a little outboard of the ends of the inwales, and about six inches inboard from this lashing another is passed through the side bark and around the gunwale and outwale on each side. These three lashings hold the outwales snug to the ends of the gunwales and against the projecting bark ends in the pinched-in form of projecting outwales.

Figure 43

Ribs Being Dried and Shaped for Ojibway Canoe. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)

The heels of the stem-pieces rest on the bottom bark and the sewing is carried down to where the cutting of the profile makes an end to the seam, the solid part of the heels extending about 6 to 8 inches inboard of this. Next, any sewing required on the bottom is done. When the bark cover has been given a final inspection on the outside and all sewing has been completed, the canoe is lifted from its supports, righted, and set on the bed or on a smooth grassy place.

All seams are now payed with gum on the inside of the bark while this can still be done without interference from the sheathing or those parts of the structure remaining to be installed. The Malecites used only spruce gum tempered with animal fat. The gum, heated until it is sufficiently soft to pour like heavy syrup, is spread with a small wooden paddle or spoon, and is then worked into the seam and smoothed by rubbing with the thumb dipped in water to prevent the gum from sticking and burning. It is first worked into the ends, between the bark and each side of the stem-pieces, particularly near the heel below the waterline. When the crevices are filled, a piece of bark (in later times a piece of cloth was used) wide enough to cover the gum alongside is well smeared with warm gum and pressed down along the inside of the stem-pieces. On each seam, at gores, and on side panels a thin narrow strip of bark is smeared with gum and pressed over the seam after the latter had been well payed. The bark is now carefully scrutinized for small splits, holes, or thin spots since these can be easily patched from the inside at this stage of construction. In fitting bark strips and in gumming, great care is taken to obtain a flat surface; the edges of the strips inside are faired to the inside face of the bark by smearing gum along the edges. The canoe is now ready to be sheathed and ribbed out.

The sheathing for this canoe has been split in advance out of clear white cedar in splints about 5 to 9 feet long, 3 to 4¼ inches wide, and ⅛ inch thick. The butts of each piece have been whittled to a feather edge, the bevel extending back about 2 inches. Also, some pieces of basket ash have been split out of saplings for temporary ribs to hold the sheathing in place.

A total of 50 or more ribs in five lengths, the longest about 5 feet, have been made up from white cedar heartwood and bent to the desired shape.

In deciding the rough lengths of the ribs, the builder can resort to various methods. He can prebend ribs in pairs to a number of arbitrarily chosen shapes: the first set of six pairs to the desired midsection form; a second set of five pairs to the form of the section between the middle and first pair of thwarts; a third, of five pairs, to the section at the first thwarts each way from the middle; a fourth, of four pairs, to the section between the end and the first pair of thwarts each way from the middle; a fifth, of three pairs, to the section at the end thwarts; and a sixth, of two or three pairs, for the section at or near the headboards. This makes from 50 to 52 frames in a canoe measuring 18 or 19 feet overall.

Each frame piece is treated with boiling water and then bent, over the knee or around a tree, to a slightly greater degree than is needed. While thus bent, each pair is wrapped lengthwise over the end with a strip of basswood or cedar bark to hold the ribs in shape. Sometimes a strut is placed under the bark strips to maintain the desired form, or a cross-tie of bark may be employed. The ribs are then allowed to season in this position.

Another method, which will be illustrated later (p. [53]), involves placing ribs of green spruce in their approximate position and forcing them against the bark. In this method, a number of long battens are placed over the roughly bent ribs laid loosely inside the bark cover, and are spread by forcing a series of short crosspieces, or stays, between them athwartships. The bark is given a good wetting with boiling water to make it flexible and elastic, so that the pressure applied to the battens by the temporary crosspieces brings the bark to the shape desired for the canoe. The rough lengths of the ribs are determined by use of a measuring stick or by measurements made around the bark with a piece of flexible root or a batten of basket ash. The ribs, in any case, are made somewhat longer than required to allow a final fitting when being placed over the sheathing.

It can be seen that the exact form the canoe takes is largely a matter of judgment and of the flexibility and elasticity of the bark, rather than of precise molding on a predetermined model, or lines.

Figure 44

Details of Ribs and method of shaping them in pairs in a bark strap or thong so that they take a "set" while drying out.

In the Malecite canoe the ribs are wide amidships, 3 or 4 inches, and narrow to 2½ or 2 inches toward the ends. The thickness is an even ⅜ inch. Most birch-bark canoes have ribs of even thickness their full length, but in a few the thickness is tapered slightly above the turn of the bilge, usually when the tumble-home is high on the sides and rather great. The width, as previously explained, is usually carried all across the bottom; above the bilges there is a moderate taper.

The sheathing of the canoe is now first to be put in place. In the Malecite canoe the center pieces are the longest; they are tapered each way from their butts, which overlap about 2 inches amidships. The ends are made narrow enough to fit readily into the sharp transverse curve of the bottom and are long enough to pass under the heels of the stem pieces for an inch or two. The pieces of sheathing on each side of the center pieces are fitted in the same manner, and by the time two or three courses are in place they must be held in some manner at the ends. This is accomplished by means of the rough temporary ribs mentioned earlier. The sheathing is laid edge-to-edge, with the butts overlapping, and, if there are not enough long pieces to complete the bottom amidships, three or four lengths, with overlapped butts, will be used. As the sheathing progresses, more temporary ribs will have to be added. At the turn of the bilge, the sheathing will bend transversely as pressure is applied by the temporary ribs; the bark must be again wetted so that the angular bilge can be forced into a roughly rounded form. Particular care is required in finishing the sheathing below the gunwale to be certain that the top strake will be close up against the sewing of the bark at gunwales, but no particular attempt is made to make the edges of the sheathing in the topsides maintain edge-to-edge contact.

The pressure of the temporary ribs, the heads of which are forced under the gunwales, and the elasticity of the bark due to treating it with boiling water are enough to rough-shape the canoe.

Before the permanent ribs are placed the sheer is checked. If it appears to have straightened, the ends of the gunwales are supported by means of short posts placed under them, with the heels standing on the heels of the stem pieces or on the sheathing. Then some stakes, each having a projecting limb or root, are cut and are driven into the ground with the limb hooked over the gunwale to force it down.

After measurements have been made for the first rib with a strand of root or an ash batten, it is now cut to a length slightly more than would permit the rib to be forced upright when in place. The ends of the rib are set in place in the bevel, or notch, on the underside of the gunwales, against the bark cover, and with the bottom part of the rib standing inboard of the head. Then, with one end of a short batten placed against its inboard side, the rib is driven toward the end of the canoe with blows from a club on the head of the batten. If the rib drives too easily it is removed and laid aside; if too hard, it is shortened. It must go home tightly enough to stretch slightly the bark cover by bringing pressure to bear on the whole width of the sheathing. Care is taken, in this operation, to keep moist not only the bark but also the sewing, particularly along the gunwales, so that all possible elasticity is obtained. The ribs are set, one by one, working to within two or three frames of the midship thwart; then the other end of the canoe is begun. The last three or four ribs to be placed are thus amidships. In every rib driven, the tension is great, but no rib is driven so that it stands perpendicular to the base. Those first driven stand with their bottoms nearer the midship thwart than the ends, and this angle, or slant, continues to amidships; the ribs in the other end of the canoe slant in the opposite direction.

It will be evident that skill is required to estimate how much pressure the bark will stand before bursting under the strain of the driven ribs. It is also apparent that the shape of the canoe is controlled by the shaping given the ribs in the prebending, for this fixes the amount of tumble-home and the amount of round, or rounded-V, given to the bottom athwartships. No fixed rules appear to exist; the eye and judgment of the builder are his only guides. To show how much strain is placed on the bark, however, it may be noted that inspection of two old canoes showed that the gunwale pegs had been noticeably bent between the inner and outer gunwales.

It appears to have been a rather common practice, after all the ribs had been driven into place, to allow the canoe to stand a few days and then again to set the frames (where unevenness appears in the topsides) with driving batten and maul, the bark cover and the root sewing or lashings having been again thoroughly wetted.

The headboards are now to be made. These are shaped in the form of an elongate-oval from a wide splint of white cedar about 4 inches wide at midlength and ¼ inch thick. The narrow end is first cut off square or nearly so; the bottom end is notched to fit in the notch in the heel of the stem-piece and the top has a small tenon at the centerline that will be fitted into a hole drilled or gouged in the underside of the inner gunwales where they join at the ends. The length of the headboards in the canoe being built is 15¾ inches over all, and when they have been made for each end, they are checked as to width and height to see that they can be fitted. Next, the extreme ends of the canoe between the stem and the headboards are stuffed with dry cedar shavings or dry moss so that the sides stand firm on each side of the bow outboard of the ends of the sheathing, which ends rather unevenly, just outboard of where the headboards will stand. This completed, the headboards are forced into position by first stepping the heel notch in the stem-piece notch and then bending the board by placing one hand against its middle and pulling the top toward the worker. This shortens the height of the board enough so the tenon projecting on its head can be sprung into the small hole under the inner gunwales, where it becomes rigidly fixed. Its sprung shape pushes up the gunwales and makes the side bark of the ends very taut and smooth, while supporting the gunwale ends.

Two thin strips about 19 feet long are next split out of white cedar to form the gunwale caps; these are ¼ to ⅜ inch thick, and taper each way from about 2 inches wide in the middle to 1 inch wide at the ends. These are laid along the top of the inner gunwales and fastened down with pegs placed clear of the gunwale lashings. The ends of the strips are usually secured by two or three small lashings; the caps thus formed often stop short of the ends of the inner gunwale members. If the caps are carried right out to the stems, as was the practice of some Malecite builders, the lashings of the outwale are not turned in until after the caps are in place, in which case the bark deck pieces, or flaps, are put in just before the final lashing is made.

Figure 45

Sixth Stage of Canoe Construction: canoe has been righted and placed on a grassy or sandy spot. In this stage splints for sheathing (upper left) are fixed in place and held by temporary ribs (lower right) under the gunwales. The bark cover has been completely sewn and the shape of the canoe is set by the temporary ribs. (Sketch by Adney.)

Next, the canoe is turned upside-down and all seams are gummed smoothly on the outside. The ends, from the beginning of the seam to above the waterline, may be heavily gummed and then covered with a narrow strip of thin bark, heavily enough smeared with gum to cause it to adhere over the seam. In more recent times a piece of gummed cloth was used here. Above this protective strip, the end seams are filled with gum so that the outside can be smoothed off flush on the face of the cutwater between the stitches. All seams in the side and bottom are gummed smooth and any holes or patches remaining to be gummed are taken care of in this final inspection.

If the canoe is to be decorated (not many types were) the outside of the bark is moistened and the rough, reddish winter bark, or inner rind, is scraped away, leaving only enough to form the desired decorations. When paints of various colors could be obtained, these were also employed, but the use of the inner rind was apparently the older and more common method of decorating.

The paddles are made from splints of spruce or maple, ash, white cedar, or larch. Two forms of blade were used by the Malecite. The older form is long and narrow, with the blade wide near the top and the taper straight along each edge to a narrow, rounded point. Above the greatest width, the blade tapers almost straight along the edge, coming into an oval handle very quickly. At the head, the handle is widened and it ends squared off, but the taper toward the handle is straight, not flared as in modern canoe paddles; there is no swelling. Paddles of a shape similar to this, some without a wide handle, were used by other eastern Indians. The more recent form of Malecite paddle has a long leaf-shaped, or beaver-tail, blade, much like that of the modern canoe paddle, except that it ends in a dull point; the handle is as in the old form but the head is swelled to form the upper grip. The face of the blade, in both old and new form, has a noticeable ridge down the centerline.

Figure 46

General Details of Birch-Bark Canoe Construction, in a drawing by Adney. (From Harper's Young People, supplement, July 29, 1890.)

The eastern style of construction described here produced what might be called a wide-bottom canoe with some tumble-home above the turn of the bilge, but a different method of construction was used to produce canoes having a narrow bottom and flaring sides. These canoes were not set up on the building bed, in the first steps of shaping the hull, with the gunwale frame on the cover bark. Instead, a special building frame, mentioned earlier, was used. Each tribe using the building frame had its own style, but the variations were confined to minor matters or to proportion of width to length.

In general, the building frame is made of two squared battens, about 1¼ inch square for an 18-foot canoe. These, sometimes tapered slightly toward each end, are fitted with crosspieces with halved notches in each end to fit over the top of the battens. There may be as many as nine or as few as three of these crosspieces, with seven apparently a common number. Where ends of the long battens join they are beveled slightly on the inside face and notches are cut on the outside face to take the end lashings. Each crosspiece end is lashed around the long battens, a hole being made in each end of the crosspiece for this purpose. The lashings, commonly bark or rawhide thongs, are all temporary, as the building frame has to be dismantled to remove it from the canoe. Sometimes holes are drilled in the ends of the crosspieces, or in the long battens, and in them are stepped the posts used to fix the sheer of the gunwales.

The methods of construction, using the building frame, varied somewhat among the tribes. Since the gunwale was both longer and wider across than the building frame, the posts for sheering were set with outboard flare. However, some builders made the gunwales hogged by staking them out when green, and then set them above the building frame with vertical posts. These gunwales would not be fitted with thwarts nor would the thwart tenons always be cut at this stage. The bark was lashed to the gunwales while they were in the hogged position with the ends secured; the gunwales were then spread by inserting spreaders, or stays, between them, after which the thwarts were fitted. This method required knowledge of just how much hog should be given to the gunwales, and it must be stated that not all builders guessed right enough to produce a good-looking sheer. Judging the hogging required in the gunwales was complicated by the fact that most of these canoes had laminated ends in the gunwales at bow and stern, and a quick upturn there as well. This method of construction persisted, however, because the straight sides made easy the sewing of gores and side panels. In some Alaskan birch-bark canoes the building frame was, in fact, part of the hull structure and remained in the canoe. In these, the building frame was hogged and then flattened by the ribs in construction so as to smooth the bottom bark by placing it under tension. In some canoes the posts for sheering the canoe rested under the thwarts rather than under the gunwales. In most canoes the building frame was taken apart and removed from the canoe when the gunwale structure was complete and in place, sheered.

Where large sheets of bark were available, the setting up with the building frame or gunwale was made easier than where the bark had to be pieced out for both length and width. If large pieces of bark could be obtained there was little or no sewing on the bottom; only the gores or laps, and the panels, in the side required attention after the bark had been lashed to the gunwales. In such instances, the set-up did not require perpendicular sides, as the sides could be completed after the canoe was removed from the building bed and the building frame had been removed from the hull. There were many minor variations in the set-up and in the sequence of the sewing. In view of the slight opportunities that now exist for examining the old building methods and construction sequences, it is impossible to be certain that the one used by a tribe in recent times was that employed in prehistoric times by their ancestors.

Instead of a laminated stem-piece, a large root whittled to the desired cross section was sometimes used by builders among the Malecites and other eastern tribes. This was bent into the ends while green and to it was lashed the bark, so that the stem dried in place to the desired profile curve. No inner stem-piece was used by the Micmacs, who formed the end structure by placing a split-root batten on each outside face of the bark and passing the lashing around both. When a plank-on-edge was used to form the stem-piece, as mentioned earlier, no headboard was required, as the gunwales ends could be brought to the plank structure. In canoes having the complicated stem structure seen in the large fur-trade canoes and some others, the headboard became an integral part of the stem structure, rather than an independent unit, and was placed in the canoe during building with the stem-pieces.

There was much variation in the form of gunwale structure employed in bark canoes. A strip of bark was added all along the outwale by some tribes, so that between the gunwale members and for a short distance below the sewing the bark was doubled; the bottom of this strip was, in fact, a flap not secured and thus was much like the flaps at the ends of the Malecite canoe, but without covering the top of the main gunwales. The outwale and inwale cross sections of some canoes were almost round. The use of a single gunwale member is commonly followed by continuous lashing of the bark along it. On some northwestern canoes having continuous lashing, the ends of the ribs were made in sharp points that could penetrate between the turns of root sewing, under the gunwales. The ends of the ribs in some of these were secured more firmly by tying them to long battens placed between the ribs and the bark cover just below the gunwales. The northwestern canoes built in this manner had double gunwales, an outwale and an inwale, but no bevel or notch for the rib heads. The ends of the gunwales, inner and outer, were secured in many ways. Some, instead of being pegged and lashed, were simply tied together; others were fastened by a rather elaborate lashing through the bark and around the gunwales. Caps were sometimes allowed to overlap at the ends and were pinned together with pegs or lashed. In some canoes the outwales were lashed, rather than pegged, to the inwales, and for this and for the caps rawhide appears to have once been widely used. In some canoes the head of the stem-piece was bent inboard sharply and lashed to the ends of the inwales or outwales. In many canoes the gunwales, instead of stopping short of the stem-piece, ran to it and were lashed there.

Figure 47

Gunwale Construction and thwart or crossbar fastenings, as shown in a sketch by Adney. (From Harper's Young People, supplement, July 29, 1890.)

At the start of ribbing out a canoe, the first two or three ribs might not be put at each end until after the headboards had been fitted, and sometimes a rib was placed on each side of the middle thwart, apparently to hold securely the sheathing butted amidships while the ribbing progressed toward them from the ends. When a canoe was short and rather wide, the ribs usually were bent by placing them inside the faired bark cover before the sheathing was installed, there to dry and set or to season, depending on whether they were steamed or green. Prebending the ribs, as described in the building of a Malecite canoe, worked well only when the canoe was long, narrow, and sharp. The spacing of the ribs was done by eye, not by precise measurement, and was never exactly the same over the length of the canoe. Ribs near the ends were usually spaced at greater intervals than those in the middle third of the length.

The extension of the bark beyond the ends of the inner gunwale in an eastern canoe was often about one foot on each end, but this distance was actually determined by the length of the bark available and by the usual reluctance of the builder to add a panel at the end.

For the height of the end posts, in sheering the gunwales, a common Malecite measurement was the length of the forearm from knuckles of clenched fist to back of elbow. These posts were often left in place until the stems were fitted.

The use of a building frame is known to have been common in areas where, normally, the gunwale frame would be employed in the initial steps in building. In a few instances this occurred when a builder had a number of canoes of the same size to construct. It seems probable that the use of the building frame spread into Eastern areas comparatively recently as a result of the influence of the fur-trade canoes on construction methods. The employment of the plank building bed in the East is known to have occurred among individual canoe builders late in the nineteenth century as a result of this influence.

The use of nails and tacks instead of pegs and root lashing or sewing in bark canoe construction became quite widespread early in the nineteenth century; it is to be seen in many old canoes preserved in museums. The bark in these is often secured to the gunwales with carpet or flat-headed tacks, and both the outwale and the cap are nailed to the inner gunwales with cut or wire nails. Various combinations of lashings and nailing can be seen in these canoes, although such combinations are sometimes the result of comparatively recent repairs or restorations rather than evidence of the original construction. No date can be placed on the introduction of nails into Indian canoe building, although it may be said that nailing was used in many eastern areas before 1850.

Among the many published descriptions of the method of building bark canoes the earliest give very incomplete information on the building sequence and usually contain obvious errors as to proportions and materials. (An example is that of Nicolas Denys, who, sometime between 1632 and 1650, saw bark canoes being built in what is now New Brunswick and Cape Breton.) The best descriptions are relatively recent and, as a result, may describe methods of construction that are not aboriginal.

The description given here is based upon notes made by Adney in 1889-90 and upon inspection of old canoes from the various tribal areas. It was noted that, although among canoes of the same approximate length there was some variation in dimensions and some variety in end form, the construction appeared to vary remarkably little, and it is apparent that the Malecites held very closely to a fixed sequence in the building process. There was, however, great variation in detail. The number of gore slashes in canoes 18 to 19 feet long varied from 10 to 23 on a side. The number was not always the same on both sides of a canoe nor were the gores always opposite one another. Canoes with long, sharp ends often had a large number of closely spaced gores in the middle third of the length, with widely spaced gores toward the ends. Full-ended canoes, on the other hand, had rather equally spaced gores their full length. The amount and form of rocker was also a factor in spacing the gores, and when the rocker was confined to short distances close to the ends there would naturally be rather closely spaced gores in these portions of the sides.

A number of the building practices remain to be described, but these will be best understood when the individual tribal canoe forms are examined. No written description of building canoes can be understood without reference to drawings, and to promote this understanding construction details have been shown on many of those of individual canoes of each tribal type.

Figure 48

"Peter Joe at Work." Drawing by Adney for his article "How an Indian Birch-Bark Canoe is Made" (Harper's Young People, supplement, July 29, 1890).

Chapter Four
EASTERN MARITIME REGION

Study of the tribal forms of bark canoes might well be started with the canoes of the eastern coastal Indians, whose craft were the first seen by white men. These were the canoes of the Indians inhabiting what are now the Maritime Provinces and part of Quebec, on the shores of the St. Lawrence River and in Newfoundland, in Canada, and of the Indians of Maine and New Hampshire, in New England. Within this area were the Micmac, the Malecite, and the mixture of tribal groups known as the Abnaki in modern times, as well as the Beothuk of Newfoundland. All these groups were expert canoe builders and it was their work that first impressed the white men with the virtues of the birch-bark canoe in forest travel.

Micmac

The Micmac Indians appear to have occupied the Gaspé Peninsula, most of the north shore of New Brunswick and nearly all the shores of the Bay of Fundy as well as all of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton. They may have also occupied much of southern and central New Brunswick as well, but if so they had been driven from these sections by the Malecites before the white men came. The Micmacs were known to the early French invaders under a variety of names; "Gaspesians," "Canadiens," "Sourikois," or "Souriquois," while the English colonists of New England called them merely "Eastern Indians." The name Micmac is said to mean "allies" and not known, but this name was in use early in the 18th century, if not before 1700.

The Micmac were a hunting people with warlike characteristics; they aided the Malecite and other New England Indians in warfare against the early New England colonists and in later times aided the French against the English in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. These Indians lived in an area where water transport represented the easiest method of travel and so they became expert builders and users of birch-bark canoes, which they employed in hunting, fishing, general travel, and warfare.

The area in which they lived produced fine birch bark and suitable wood for the framework. Through experience, they had become able to design canoes for specific purposes and had produced a variety of models and sizes. The hunting canoe was the smallest, being usually somewhere between 9 and 14 feet long, with an occasional canoe as long as 15 feet. This light craft, known as a "woods canoe" and sometimes as a "portage canoe," was intended for navigating very small streams and for portaging. Another model, the "big-river canoe," somewhat longer than the woods canoe, was usually between 15 and 20 feet long. A third model, the "open water canoe," was for hunting seal and porpoise in salt water and ranged from about 18 feet to a little over 24 feet in length. The fourth model, the "war canoe," about which little is known, appears to have been built in either the "big-river" or "open-water" form, and to the same length, but sharper and with less beam so as to be faster.

The tribal characteristics of the Micmac birch-bark canoes were to be seen in the form of the midsection, in certain structural details, and in their generally sharp, torpedo-shaped lines. The construction was very light and marked by good workmanship. The distinctive profiles of bow and stern, which do not appear in the canoes of other tribes in so radical a form, were almost circular, fairing from the bottom around into the sheer in a series of curves. The break in the profile of the ends at the sheer, a break that marks in more or less degree, the end profile of other tribal forms, never occurs in the Micmac canoe. At most, a slight break in the "streamlined" curve might occur at the point where the profile was started in the bottom, at which point there might be a short, hard curve.

Figure 49

Micmac 2-Fathom Pack, or Woods, Canoe for woods travel with light loads, used by the Nova Scotia Micmacs.

The form of the sheer line of the Micmac canoes apparently varied with the model: the woods canoe had the usual curved sheer with the point of lowest freeboard about amidships, the big river canoe had either a nearly straight sheer or one very slightly hogged, while the open-water canoe had a strongly hogged sheer in which the midship portion was often as much as 3 or 4 inches above that just inboard of the ends. However, there is a possibility that, at one time, the sheer of all Micmac canoes was more or less hogged. The little that is known of the war canoes of colonial times indicate that they had the strongly hogged sheer that now marks the open-water model, through it is also known that some of these were really of the big-river model, which in later times had usually no more than a vestige of the hogged sheer.

The hull-forms of the Micmac canoes were marked in the topsides by a strong tumble-home, carried the full length of the hull, that gave these canoes more beam below than at the gunwale. The form of the midsection varied with the model; the woods canoe usually had a rather flat bottom athwartships, the big river canoe a slightly rounded bottom, and the open water canoe either a well-rounded bottom or one in the form of a slightly rounded V. The fore-and-aft rocker in the bottom was always moderate, usually occurring in the last few feet near the ends; however, many of the canoes were straight along the bottom. This condition will be again referred to in discussing the building beds used in this type. The ends were usually fine-lined; in plan view the gunwales came into the ends in straight or slightly hollow lines. The level lines below the gunwales might also be straight as they came into the ends, but were commonly somewhat hollow; a few examples show marked hollowness there. Predominantly, the Micmac canoes were very sharp in the ends and paddled swiftly. Early Micmac canoes seem to have been narrower than more recent examples, which are usually rather broad as compared to the types used by some other tribes.

Structurally, the Micmac canoes were distinguished by the construction of the ends and by their light build throughout. The canoes had no inner framework to shape the ends; stiffness there was obtained by placing battens outside the bark, one on each side of the hull, that ran from the bottom of the cut in the bark required to shape the ends to somewhat inboard of the ends of the gunwales at the sheer. These two battens, as well as a split-root stem-band covering the raw ends of the cut bark, were held in place by passing a spiral over-and-over lashing around all three. Sometimes thicker battens reaching from the high point of the ends inboard to the end thwarts were added, in which case the side battens were stopped at the high point of the ends and there faired into the thick battens.

Figure 50

Micmac 2-Fathom Pack, or Woods, Canoe with Northern Lights decoration on bow, and seven thwarts.

The gunwale structure was rather light, the maximum cross section of the main gunwale in large canoes being rarely in excess of 1¼ inches square. These members usually tapered slightly toward the ends of the canoe and had a half-arrowhead form where they were joined. Old canoes had no guard or outwale, but some more recent Micmac canoes have had a short guard along the middle third of the length. Often there was no bevel to take the rib ends on the lower outboard corner of the main gunwales, and the gunwales were not fitted so that their outboard faces stood vertically. Instead, the tenons in the gunwales were cut to slant upward from the inside, so that installation of the thwarts would cause the outboard face to flare outward at the top. Between this face and the inside of the bark cover were forced the beveled ends of the ribs, which were cut chisel-shape. However, some builders beveled or rounded the lower outboard corner of the main gunwale, as described under Malecite canoe building (p. [38]). The bark cover in the Micmac canoe was always brought up over the gunwales, gored to prevent unevenness, and folded down on top of them before being lashed. The gunwale lashing was a continuous one in which the turns practically touched one another outboard, though they were sometimes separated under the gunwale to clear the ribs, which widened near their ends, so the intervals between them were very small.

The other member of the gunwale structure was the cap; its thickness was usually ¼ to ⅜ inch, reduced slightly toward the ends. Its inboard face and the bottom were flat, but the top was somewhat rounded, with the thickness reduced toward the outboard edge. The cap was fastened to the main gunwales with pegs and with short lashing groups near the ends, but in late examples nails were used. The ends of the caps were bevelled off on the inboard side, so that they came together in pointed form. The cap usually ended near the end of the gunwale but in some canoes, particularly those that were nail-fastened, the cap was let into the gunwale (see p. [50]) so that the top was flush with end of the gunwale.

Figure 51

Micmac 2-Fathom Pack, or Woods, Canoe with normal sheer and flat bottom.

The ends of the gunwales were supported by headboards that were bellied outboard to bring tension vertically on the bark cover. The heel of the board stood on a short frog, laid on the bottom with the inboard end touching or slightly lapping over the endmost rib. The frog supported the heels of the headboard and also the forefoot of the stem-piece, which otherwise would have but partial support from the sewing battens outside the ends at these points. The headboard was rather oval-shaped and the top was notched on each side to fit under the gunwale; the narrow central tenon stood slightly above the top of the main gunwales when the headboard was sprung into place and was held in position by a lashing across the gunwales inboard of the top of the headboard. The heel was held by the notch in the frog. Cedar shavings were stuffed into the ends of the canoe between the stem-piece and the headboard to mold the ends properly, as no ribs could be inserted there. All woodwork in these canoes was white cedar, except the headboards and thwarts, which were maple, and the stem battens, which were usually basket ash but sometimes were split spruce roots.

The more recent Micmac canoes usually had no more than five thwarts; this number was found even on small woods canoes. However, old records indicate that canoes 20 to 28 feet long on the gunwales were once built with seven thwarts. The shape of the thwarts varied, apparently in accordance with the builder's fancy. The most common form was nearly rectangular in cross-section; in elevation, it was thick at the hull centerline and tapered smoothly to the outboard ends; and in plan it was narrowest at the hull centerline and increased in width toward the ends, the increase being rather sharp at the shoulders of the tenon. In some, the tenon went through the main gunwales and touched the inside of the bark cover; in others the ends of the thwarts were pointed in elevation, square in plan, and were inserted in shallow, blind tenons on the inboard side of the main gunwales. A single 3-turn lashing through a hole in the shoulder and around the main gunwale was used in every case.

Figure 51

Micmac 2-Fathom Pack, or Woods, Canoe with normal sheer and flat bottom.

Sometimes the thwarts just described were straight (in plan view) on the side toward the middle of the canoe, and only the middle thwart was alike on both sides. In others the straight side of the end thwart and of that next inboard were toward the bow and stern of the canoe. In still others, the middle thwart had a rounded barb form in plan, with the barb located within 6 or 7 inches of the shoulder and pointed toward the tenon; the next thwarts out on each side of the middle thwart were shaped like a cupid's bow but slightly angular and aimed toward the ends of the canoe, and the end thwarts were of similar plan. In one known example having such thwarts, there were two very short thwarts at the ends of the canoe, of the usual plain form described earlier, each a few inches inboard of the headboard. Thus this canoe had seven thwarts in the old fashion.

The ribs, or frames, were thin, about ¼ or ⁵⁄₁₆ inch thick, and across the bottom of the canoe they were often 3 inches wide. In the topsides the ribs were tapered to about 2 inches in width; when the bottom and outboard corner of the main gunwales were not beveled, the rib ends were cut square across on the wide face and chisel-shaped. When the gunwale corner was beveled, the ribs were formed with a sharply tapered dull point at the ends. From the middle of the canoe to the first thwarts each way from the middle, the ribs were spaced 1 inch edge-to-edge. From the first thwarts to the ends, the spacing was about 1½ inches. Most builders made the ribs narrower toward the ends; if those in the middle of the canoe were 3 inches wide, those near the ends might be 2½. They were shaped and placed as described for the Malecite canoe in Chapter 3.

In the construction of a Micmac canoe, the gunwales were first formed, assembled, and used as a building frame. If the sheer was to be hogged, this was done by treating the main gunwales with boiling water before assembly and then staking them out to dry in the required sheer curves. The building bed was well crowned, usually 2 to 2½ inches because of the very wide bottom and the tumble-home of these canoes. Most Micmac canoes appear to have had only slight fore-and-aft rocker in the bottom; the bottoms of the seagoing type were often quite straight, and the other two types had a slight rocker of perhaps 1½ inches, most of it near the ends. When the sheer was hogged, the amount of hog was probably close to the amount of crown in the building bed. The ends of the gunwales, when laid on the bed, were blocked up to about the desired amount of rocker to be given the bottom.

Figure 53

Micmac 3-Fathom Ocean Canoe Fitted for Sailing. Short outwales or battens project gunwales to strengthen the ends of the canoe. Some specimens of this type of canoe had almost no rocker in the bottom.

The bark cover was selected with great care from the fine stand of paper birch available to the Micmac. Except in emergencies, only winter bark was used. The cover was gored six to eight times on each side, and most of these cuts were grouped amidships, owing to the sharpness of the ends. The gores were trimmed edge-to-edge, without overlap, as the Micmac preferred a smooth surfaced canoe, and the sewing was the common spiral, over and over. The width of the bark cover was usually pieced out amidships on each side (at least in existing models) by the addition of narrow panels. These may not have been necessary in the very old canoes, which appear to have been much narrower than more recent examples. The horizontal seams of the panels were straight, or nearly so, and did not follow the sheer. The closely spaced spiral over-and-over stitch was sewn over a batten, the lap being toward the gunwale. As has been said, a continuous over-and-over gunwale lashing was used. The thwart lashings were through single holes in the thwart shoulders, three turns being usual, and two turns around the gunwale on each side were added, all passing through the bark cover, of course. The sewing was neat and the stitches were even.

The wood lining, or sheathing, of the Micmac canoe was like that described for the Malecite canoe in the last chapter. The sheathing was a full ⅛ to about ³⁄₁₆ inch thick. The strakes were laid edge-to-edge longitudinally, with slightly overlapping butts amidships, and were tapered toward the ends of the canoe. The maximum width of any strake at the butts was about 4 inches.

Figure 54

Micmac Rough-Water Canoe, Bathurst, N.B. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)

In some of the rough-water canoes fitted to sail, a guard strip running the full length of the canoe and located some 6 or 7 inches below the gunwale was placed along both sides to protect the strongly tumble-home sides from abrasion from the paddles, particularly when the craft was steered under sail. These strips, about ⁵⁄₁₆ inch thick and ¾ inch wide, were butted on each side, a little abaft amidships, and were held together by a single stitch. The guards were secured in place by rather widely spaced stitches around them that passed through the bark cover and ceiling, between the ribs in the topsides. At bow and stern, the ends of the guards butted against the battens outside the bark at the end profiles and were secured there by a through-all lashing.

Figure 55

Micmac Woods Canoe, built by Malecite Jim Paul at St. Mary's Reserve in 1911, under the direction of Joe Pictou, old canoe builder of Bear River, N.S. Modern nailed type. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)

The proportions and measurements of the Micmac canoes appear to have changed between the colonial period and the late 19th century. From early references, it is apparent that the early canoes were much narrower than later ones, in proportion to length, as mentioned earlier. An 18-foot rough-water canoe of the 18th century appears to have had an extreme beam of between 30 and 34 inches and a gunwale beam, measured inside the members, of 24 to 28 inches, the depth amidships being about 18 to 20 inches. A similar canoe late in the 19th century would have had an extreme beam of nearly 40 inches, a beam inside the gunwales of 33 or 34 inches, and a depth of about 18 inches or less. An early woods canoe, about 14 feet long overall, appears to have had an extreme beam of only 29 inches and a beam inside the gunwales of about 25 or 26 inches. A woods canoe of 1890 was 15 feet long, 36½ inches extreme beam, and 30 inches inside the gunwales, with the depth amidships about 11 inches. A big-river canoe of this same date was a little over 20 feet in extreme length, 18 feet over the gunwales, 41 inches extreme beam, and 34 inches gunwale width inside, with a depth amidships of about 12½ inches. An 18-foot big-river canoe of an earlier time was reported as being 37 inches extreme beam, 30½ inches inside the gunwales, and 13 inches depth amidships. The maximum size of the rough-water seagoing canoe, in early times, may have been as great as 28 feet but with a narrow beam of roughly 29 or 30 inches over the gunwales, and say 24 inches inside, with a depth amidships as much as 20 or 22 inches due to the strongly hogged sheer there. In modern times, such canoes were rarely over 21 feet in overall length and had a maximum beam of about 42 inches, a beam inside the gunwales of 36 or 37 inches, and a depth amidships of 16 or 17 inches.

In early colonial times, and well into the 18th century, apparently, the Micmac type of canoe was used as far south as New England, probably having been brought there by the Micmac war parties aiding the Malecite and the Kennebec in their wars against the English. The canoe in the illustration on page [12] is obviously a Micmac canoe and apparently one used by a war party. As it was brought to England in 1749 in the ship America, which was built in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and probably sailed from there, it seems highly probable that the canoe had been obtained nearby, perhaps in eastern Maine.

The small woods canoe, most commonly about 12 feet long, appears first to have been used by all the Micmac. By the middle of the 19th century, however, this type was to be found only in Nova Scotia, owing to the movement of most of the tribe toward the north shore in New Brunswick, where their inland navigation was confined to large rivers and the coast. Hence the Micmac in New Brunswick used the big-river model and the seagoing type. The latter was last used in the vicinity of the head of Bay Chaleur and was often called the Restigouche canoe, after the Micmac village of that name. It was replaced by a 3-board skiff-canoe and finally by a large wooden canoe of the "Peterborough" type with peaked ends and lapstrake planking; some of the latter may still be seen on the Gaspé Peninsula.

Figure 56

Micmac Rough-Water Canoe fitted for sailing. (Photo W. H. Mechling, 1913.)

The use of sail in the Micmac canoes cannot be traced prior to the arrival of the white men. The use probably resulted from the influence of Europeans, but it is possible that the prehistoric Indians may have set up a leafy bush in the bow of their canoes to act as a sail with favorable winds. The old Nova Scotia expression "carrying too much bush," meaning over-canvassing a boat, is thought by some to have originated from an Indian practice observed there by the first settlers. In early colonial times, the Micmac used a simple square sail in their canoes and this, by the last decade of the 19th century, was replaced by a spritsail probably inspired by the dory-sail of the fishermen. The Indian rig was unusual in several respects. The sheet, for example, was double-ended; one end was made fast to the clew of the sail and the other to the head of the sprit, so that it served also as a vang. The bight was secured within reach of the steersman by a half hitch to a crossbar fixed well aft across the gunwales. The sail, nearly rectangular and with little or no peak, was laced to the mast, and the sprit was supported by a "snotter" lanyard tied low on the mast. A sprit boom was also carried by some canoes; this was secured to the clew of the sail and to the mast, a snotter lanyard being used at the latter position.

Figure 57

Micmac Rough-Water Canoe, Bay Chaleur. (Photo H. V. Henderson, West Bathurst, N.B.)

Figure 58

Micmac Rough-Water Sailing Canoe, Bay Chaleur. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)

The mast was secured by a thwart pegged, or nailed, across the gunwale caps. Sometimes, the thwart was also notched over the caps, so that the side-thrust caused by the leverage of the mast would not shear the fastenings. The crossbar for the sheet was sometimes similarly fastened and fitted, with its ends projecting outboard of the gunwales. The heel of the mast was sometimes stepped into a block, which was usually about 5 inches square and 1½ inches thick, nailed or pegged to the center bottom board, or sometimes it was merely stepped into a hole in the center bottom board. The bottom boards, usually three in number were of wide, thin stock and were clamped in place over the ribs by three or four false frames driven under the thwarts, just as were the canoe ribs under the gunwales.

Figure 59

Details of Micmac Canoes, Including Mast and Sail.

The canoes could not sail close-hauled, as a rule, though some Indians learned to use a leeboard in the form of a short plank hung vertically over the lee side and secured by a lanyard to a thwart, the board being shifted in tacking. An alternate was to have a passenger hold a paddle vertically on the lee side. There seems to have been no fixed proportions to the area of sail used; the actual areas appear to have been somewhere between 50 and 100 square feet, depending upon the size of the canoe. Joseph Dadaham, a Micmac, stated in 1925 that he used "24 yards" in the sail of a "rough-water canoe" 20 feet long and about 44 inches beam, while one 18 feet long and about 36 inches extreme beam carried "16 to 18 yards"; it is obvious that the "yards" are of narrow sail cloth and not square yards of finished sail. In the last days of sailing bark canoes, mast hoops and a halyard block were fitted so that the sail could be lowered instead of having to be furled around the mast (to accomplish this the "crew" had to stand). Dadaham also stated that for his sheet belay he used a jamb-hitch which could be released quickly when the canoe was found to be overpowered by the wind. It appears that during the last era of these bark canoes the rig had been improved to fit it for open-water sailing.

The paddles used by the Micmac appear to have varied in shape. If the canoe shown in Chapter 1 (p. [12]) was indeed a Micmac canoe as supposed, the paddle shown there is quite different from the later tribal forms illustrated above, and it is possible that the top grips shown in the more modern forms were never used in prehistoric times, when the pole handle shown with the old canoe may have been standard.

The Micmac canoes were decorated by scraping away part of the inner rind of the birch bark, leaving portions of it in a formal design. It seems very probable that the Micmac seldom used this form of decoration in early times, but later they used it a great deal in their rough-water canoes, perhaps as a result of contact with the Malecite. The formal designs used as decoration by the Micmac did not have any particular significance as a totem or religious symbol; they were used purely as decoration or to identify the owner. Such forms as the half-moon, a star in various shapes, or some other figure might be used by the builder, but these were apparently only his canoe mark, not a family insignia or his usual signature, and could be altered at will.

The usual method of decoration was to place the canoe mark on both sides of the canoe at the ends and to have along the gunwales amidships a long narrow panel of decoration, usually of some simple form. The panel decorations are said by Micmacs to have been selected by the builder merely as pleasing designs. One design used was much like the fleur-de-lis, another was a series of triangles supposed to represent camps, still another was the northern lights design, a series of closely spaced, sloping, parallel lines (or very narrow panels) that seem to represent a design much used in the quill decoration for which the Micmac were noted. Canoes are recorded as having stylized representations of a salmon, a moose, a cross, or a very simple star form; these may have been canoe marks or may once have been a tribal mark in a certain locality. A series of half-circles were sometimes used in the gunwale panels, which were rarely alike on both sides of the canoe, and it is probable that use was made of other forms that have not been recorded. Colored quills in northern lights pattern were used in some model or toy canoes but not in any surviving example of a full-size canoe. It is quite possible, however, that such quill-work was once used in Micmac canoe decoration. Painting of the bark cover for decorative purposes in Micmac canoes has not been recorded.

Figure 60

Micmac Canoe, Bathurst, N.B. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)

Historical references to the canoes of the Micmac are frequent in the French records of Canada; it must have been Micmac canoes that Cartier saw in 1534 at Prince Edward Island and in Bay Chaleur. The most complete description of such canoes is in the account of Nicolas Denys, who came to the Micmac country in 1633 and remained there almost continuously until his death at 90, in 1688. His travels during this period took him into Maine as far as the Penobscot and throughout what are now New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. While his descriptions are primarily concerned with the Malecite dress, houses, and hunting and fishing techniques, his notes on birch-bark canoes seem to indicate very clearly that he is describing a hogged-sheer Micmac rough-water canoe. He says, for example, that the length of these canoes was between 3 and 4½ fathoms, the fathom being the French brasse, so that they ranged in length from 16 to 24 feet over the gunwales. This gunwale length seems reasonable, since Denys gives the beam as only about 2 English feet, obviously a gunwale measurement in view of the great tumble-home in these canoes. That the Micmac rough-water canoe is the subject of Denys' observations is further indicated by his statement that the depth was such that the gunwales came to the armpits of a man seated on the bottom. This could only be true in a canoe having a hogged sheer in the lengths given, and is, in fact, a slight exaggeration unless the man referred to was of less than average height. The depth would be about 22 English inches, great even for a 24-foot canoe. Denys states that the inside sheathing of these canoes was split from cedar. He also states that the splints were about 4 inches wide, were tapered toward the ends, and ran the full length of the canoe. It is probable that they were butted amidships, as in known examples; this, however, would have been covered by a rib and might not have been noticed.

Denys says that the Indians "bent the cedar ribs in half-circles to form ribs and shaped them in the fire." Adney believed this meant by use of hot water. However, this bending could have been done by what was known in 17th-century shipbuilding practice as stoving, in which green lumber was roasted over an open fire until the sap and wood became hot enough to allow a strong bend to be made without breakage. Wood thus treated, when cooled and seasoned somewhat, would hold the set. While it is certain that later Indians knew how to employ hot water, it does not follow that all tribes used this method, particularly in early times.

Denys also states that the roots of "fir," split into three or four parts, were used in sewing. He apparently used "fir" as a general name for an evergreen. It is probable that the roots used were of the black spruce. The technique of building he describes is about the same as that outlined in the last chapter. He says that the gunwales were round and that seven beech thwarts were employed, practices that differ from those in more recent Micmac canoe building, and he notes the goring of the bark cover. Denys states the paddles were made of beech (instead of maple as was perhaps the case) with blades about 6 inches wide and their length that of an arm (about 27 inches), with the handle a little longer than the blade. He also says that four, five, or six paddlers might be aboard a canoe and that a sail was often used. "Formerly of bark," the sail was made of a well-dressed hide of a young moose. Since it could carry eight or ten persons, the canoe Denys is referring to is obviously a large one. In his building description he does not mention headboards, rail caps, or the end forms. It may be assumed that he was then describing a canoe he had seen during construction but whose building he did not follow step by step.

De la Poterie, in his book published in 1722, gives a profile and top view of what must have been a Micmac canoe. The probable length indicated must have been about 22 English feet overall and about 32 inches extreme beam; seven thwarts are shown.

Late in the 19th century there appears to have been some fusion of Micmac and Malecite methods of construction, as Malecite built to Micmac forms and vice versa. This apparently did not produce a hybrid form so far as appearance was concerned but it did affect construction, in that inner end-frames were used and other details of the Micmac design were altered. The Micmac, having early come into close contact with the Europeans, were among the first Indians to employ nails in the construction of bark canoes, and this resulted in an early decadence in their building methods. Hence, some examples of their canoes show what the Indians termed broken gunwales, in which the ends of the thwarts were not tenoned into the gunwales, but rather were let flush into the top by use of a dovetail cut or, less securely, by a rectangular recess across the gunwale, and were held in place with a nail through the thwart end and the gunwale member.

From scanty references by early writers, it appears that a spiral over-and-over lashing was originally used by the Micmac on the ends and gunwales. The lower edges of the side panels were sewn over-and-over a split-root batten. In some extant examples the gores are sewn with a harness stitch; in others a simple spiral stitch is used. The cross-stitch does not appear to have been used by the Micmac. The gunwale caps were certainly pegged and the ends lashed; the bark cover was folded over the gunwale tops and clamped by the caps as well as secured by the gunwale lashings. Tacking the bark cover to the top of the gunwales, with the cap nailed over all, marks the later Micmac canoes. The use of nails and tacks seems to have begun earlier than 1850.

Figure 61

Micmac Woman gumming seams of canoe, Bathurst, N.B., 1913. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)

In spite of decadent construction methods used in the last Micmac birch-bark canoes, the model remained a very good one in each type. The half-circular ends, sharp lines, and standard mid-sectional forms were unaltered; the hogged sheer was retained in some degree in at least two of the canoe types, the rough water and the big river, right down to the end of bark-canoe building by this tribe. The very fine design and attractive appearance of the Micmac canoe may have contributed to the early acceptance by the early explorers and traders of the birch-bark canoe as the best mode of water transport for forest travel.

Malecite

Another tribe expert in canoe building and use was the Malecite. These Indians were known to the early French explorers as the "Etchimins" or "Tarratines" (or Tarytines). Many explanations have been given for the name Malecite. One is that it was applied to these people by the Micmac and is from their word meaning "broken talkers," since the Micmac had difficulty in understanding them. When the Europeans came, these people inhabited central and southern New Brunswick and the shore of Passamaquoddy Bay, with small groups or tribal subdivisions in the area of the Penobscot to the Kennebec. These were early affected by the retreat of the New England Indians before the whites into eastern and northern Maine and southeastern Quebec. As a result, the Penobscot and Kennebec Indians became part of the group later known as Abnaki, while the Passamaquoddy Indians remained wholly Malecite and closely attached to those living along the St. John River in New Brunswick. Like their neighbors the Micmac, the Malecite were hunters and warlike; during the colonial period they were usually friendly to the French and enemies of the English settlers in their vicinity. It is not certain that the tribe now called by that name were actually of a single tribal stock; it is possible that this designation really covers a loose federation of small tribal groups who eventually achieved a common language. In addition, the tribal designation cannot be wholly accurate because of the fact that much of the original group living in New England were absorbed in the Abnaki in the 17th and 18th centuries. Therefore, the Malecite are considered here to be those Indians formerly inhabiting valleys of the St. John and the St. Croix Rivers, and the Passamaquoddy Bay area. The remaining portions, the Kennebec and Penobscot Indians, must now be classed as Abnaki, of whom more later (see p. [88]).

In considering the birch-bark canoes of the Malecite, it is important to understand that this tribal form includes not only the types used in more recent times in New Brunswick and on Passamaquoddy Bay, but also an overlapping type related to the later Abnaki models. The old form of Malecite canoe used on the large rivers and along the coast appears to have had rather high-peaked ends, with a marked overhang fore and aft. The end profiles had a sloping outline, strongly curved into the bottom, and a rather sharply lifting sheer toward each end. This form was also to be seen in old canoes from the St. John River (the lower valley), the Passamaquoddy, the Penobscot, and the upper St. Lawrence. By late in the 19th century, however, this style of canoe had been replaced by canoes having rounded ends, the profiles being practically quarter-circles and sometimes with such small radii that a slight tumble-home appeared near the sheer. The small radius of the end curves is particularly marked in some of the seagoing porpoise-hunting canoes of the Passamaquoddy. In modern forms, the amount of sheer is moderate and the quick lift in the sheer to the ends is practically nonexistent. On the St. Lawrence, the radii of the end curves are very short and the upper part of the stems stands vertical and straight; the sheer, too, is usually rather straight. The older type, with high-peaked ends, was also marked by very sharp lines forward and aft, and had a midsection with tumble-home less extreme than in the Micmac canoes. The bottom, athwartships, was usually somewhat rounded (in coastal canoes the form might be a rounded V) and the bilges were rather slack, with a reverse curve above, to form the tumble-home rather close to the gunwales. The river model probably had lower ends and less rake than the coastal type, but surviving examples of both give confusing evidence. The river canoes usually had a flatter bottom than the coastal type, the latter having somewhat more rocker fore-and-aft. The sections near the ends were rather V-shaped in the coastal canoes, U-shaped in the river canoes.

The old form of small hunting canoe is represented by but one poor model (see p. [72]) in which the ends are lower and with much less rake than those of the river type. From this very scant evidence, it seems probable that the small woods canoes were patterned on the river canoe in all respects but the profile of the ends.

Figure 62

Malecite 2½-Fathom River Canoe, 19th Century. Old form with raking ends and much sheer.

From the early English and French accounts, it is evident that none of the maritime Indians used very large or long war canoes, capable of holding many men. The old war canoes of the Malecite appear to have been either of the coastal or river types as the circumstances of their place of building and use dictated. The slight information available in these accounts suggests that the war canoe did not differ in appearance from the other types of Malecite canoes, and that they were not of greater size. The Malecite appear to have followed the same practices as the Micmac, using for war purposes canoes of standard size and appearance but narrower and built for speed, since a war party sought to travel rapidly to and from its objective in order to surprise the enemy and escape before organized pursuit could be formed. The Malecite placed four warriors in each canoe, two to paddle and two to watch and use weapons while afloat. However, only on rare occasions were bows and arrows used from canoes afloat; most fighting was done on land. Each canoe carried the personal mark of each of the four warriors, apparently one mark on each flap, or wulegessis, under the gunwales near the ends. When a war leader was carried however, only his mark was on his canoe. After a successful raid, the Malecite used to race for the last mile or so of the return journey, and the winning canoe was given, as a distinction, some mark or picture, often something humorous such as a caricature of an animal. This practice, however, was not confined to war canoes; in rather recent times it has been noted that such pictures were placed on any canoe that had shown outstanding qualities in racing competition or in exhibitions of skill.

When making long canoe trips, the Malecite followed the widespread Indian practice of using the canoe as a shelter at night. When a camping place was reached, the canoe was unloaded, carried ashore, and turned upside down so that the tops of the ends and one gunwale rested on the ground. If the ends were high enough, as in the old Malecite type, one gunwale was raised off the ground far enough to permit a man to crawl under. If, as in the Micmac canoes, the ends were too low to allow this, they were raised off the ground by short forked sticks, with the forks resting against the end thwarts and the upper gunwale and the heels stuck into the earth. The dunnage (provisions or other cargo) was then stowed on the ground under the ends of the canoe and the two men would sleep under a single blanket with their feet pointed in opposite directions, each with his head on a pile of dunnage. If there were too many men aboard to do this, in bad weather a crude shelter was made by resting some poles on the upturned bilge and covering them with sheets of bark; under such a shelter meals could be cooked.

Figure 63

Old Form of Malecite-Abnaki 2½—Fathom Ocean Canoe of the Penobscots. In the Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass.

As did many of the eastern Indians, the old Malecite tribesmen built canoes of materials other than birch bark. When a canoe was required for a temporary use such as in hunting, it could be made of spruce bark. (As the designs of such canoes were rather standardized, they will be dealt with in Chapter 8.) When bark was unobtainable, the Malecite built canoes covered with moosehide, or, in rare instances, they built wooden dugouts.

The old Malecite river canoe shown on page [71] will serve to illustrate a description of the details of construction that were used. These canoes were obviously built with their gunwales (which were the length of the bottom only) serving as a building frame. The ends of the gunwales were supported by headboards stepped on the heels of the inner stem-pieces, and the stems raked outward from their heels. The gunwale ends were joined to the head of the stem-piece by the outwales and the gunwale caps. Bark was used to the ends of the canoe. One side of the bark cover was cut so that it stood well above the sheer line from the gunwale end outboard, and the opposite side was cut to the level of the sheer. The first piece was then folded over the opposite side and down, so that it covered both the extreme ends of the gunwales and the top of the inner stem-piece. Another piece of bark was then fitted over this fold, and this new piece formed the flaps below the outwales on each side, the wulegessis. The outwales ran past the gunwale ends and were cut off flush with the outboard face of the stem; the caps ran likewise and covered the bark over the head of the inner stem piece. The characteristic sheer of these canoes, where the rise toward the ends began, showed a quick curve that faired into a rising straight line at the gunwale and then continued straight and rising to the stem head. The wulegessis was therefore quite long. The ends of the gunwales were not of the half-arrowhead shape, but were snied off on their inboard sides so that they met on a rather long bevel; the lashing was slightly let in to the outboard faces to keep it from slipping over the gunwale ends. The caps of the gunwales were similarly reduced in width, where they came together over the ends of the canoe.

Figure 64

Large 3-Fathom Ocean Canoe of the Passamaquoddy porpoise hunters. These canoes were sometimes fitted to sail or outrigged for rowing. The last of this type had much lower ends.

The main gunwale members were about 1¼ inches square amidships, tapering to ¾ inch at the ends. The lower outboard corner was beveled to take the ends of the ribs, as shown on page [71], and the lower inboard corner was also beveled or rounded, but to a lesser degree. The upper inboard corner, shown beveled in the drawing of figure 62, was sometimes slightly rounded, as were the outwales. Amidships the outwale was about 1 inch deep, and it tapered toward the ends, where its depth was about ⅝ inch, the thickness being ½ inch amidships and a scant ⅜ inch at the ends. On the canoe shown, the cap was ⅜ inch thick, tapering to about ⁵⁄₁₆ inch at the ends, and 1¾ inches wide amidships, tapering to about ⅝ or ½ inch where the caps came together at the ends. The top corners of the cap were beveled in the example.

The sheathing appears to have been about ³⁄₁₆ inch thick on the average. On the bottom and sides it was in two lengths, overlapping slightly amidships. Toward the ends of the canoe the sheathing was tapered, maximum width of the splints being about 4 inches amidships.

The canoe, which was 18 feet 6 inches long overall, had 46 ribs. These were about 3 inches wide and ⅜ inch thick from the center to the first thwart outboard on each side, and 2 inches wide from these thwarts to the ends, except for the endmost five ribs, which were roughly 1¾ inches wide. The drawing on page [71] shows the shape of the thwarts. The ends were tenoned through the gunwales, and there were three lacing holes in the ends of the middle and first thwarts and two in the end thwarts. The beam of the canoe inside the gunwales was 30 inches and outside, 31¼ inches; the tumble-home made the extreme beam 35½ inches. The canoe was rather flat bottomed athwartships and quite shallow, the depth amidships being 10¾ inches.

The building bed must have had about a 1½ inch crown at midlength. It is probable that the stem pieces were not fixed in place until after the gunwales had been raised to sheer height. The gunwales were lashed with the Malecite group lashings, each of four turns through the bark and spaced at 3 to 3½ inches apart in the midlength and at 2 inches from the end thwarts to the headboards. Two auxiliary lashings were placed over the outwales and caps outboard of the gunwale ends, one about 6 inches beyond the ends of the gunwales and the other against the inboard side of the stem-piece. The end closure was accomplished by the usual spiral lashing passed through the laminated stem pieces. The latter were split (to within about 4 inches of the heel), into six or more laminae that were closely wrapped with bark cord. The headboards were bellied toward the ends to keep the bark cover under tension, and the ends outboard of the headboards were stuffed with shavings or moss.

Figure 65

Old Form of Passamaquoddy 2½-Fathom Ocean Canoe with characteristic bottom rocker and sheer. This rather small, fast canoe for coastal hunting and fishing was common in the 19th century.

A canoe from the Penobscot River, obtained in 1826 by the Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, and described in The American Neptune for October 1948, shows that the Penobscot built their canoes on the old Malecite model. The canoe is apparently a coastal type. It has some round in the bottom amidships and V-sections toward the ends; it is 18 feet 7 inches long overall, 37¼ inches maximum beam, 15¼ inches deep amidships, and the ends stand 26 to 28 inches above the base line, the bow being slightly higher and with more rake than the stern. The rocker takes place within 4 feet of the ends, with the bottom straight for about 8 feet along the midlength. The bilges amidship are slack, and the reverse curve to form the tumble-home starts within 6 inches of the gunwales (see drawing, p. [72].)

A much later coastal canoe of the Passamaquoddy, a porpoise-and seal-hunting canoe built in 1873, will also serve to show the old type (see p. [73]). This style of canoe was usually built in lengths ranging from 18 to 20 feet overall, the maximum beam was between 25 and 44 inches, and the beam inside the gunwales was between 29½ and 36 inches. The depth amidships ranged from about 18 to 21 inches, and the height of the ends above the base was from 28 or 30 inches to as much as 45 inches. The ribs numbered from 42 to 48 and were 3 inches wide and ½ inch thick. The sheathing was from ¼ to ⅜ inch thick and the rocker of the bottom, from 4 to 6 inches, took place within the last 4 or 5 feet of the ends. The midsection showed a well-rounded bottom, a slack bilge, and the high reverse to form the tumble-home seen in the old Penobscot canoe at Salem. These canoes were still being built well into the 1880's, if not later, and are to be seen in some old U.S. Fish Commission photographs of porpoise and seal hunting at Eastport, Maine. Seal-and porpoise-hunting canoes carried a sail, usually the spritsail of the dory. While this model probably was little changed in construction from early times, the surviving examples and models are of the period when nails were employed. The drawing on page [74] is of a small coastal hunting canoe of the same class, built in 1875.

Figure 66

Malecite Racing Canoe of 1888, showing V-shaped keel piece placed between sheathing and bark to form deadrise.

The reasons for the gradual decline in the building of canoes of the old style are not known, and the transition from the high-peaked ends to the more modern low and rounded ends was not sudden. It apparently began in some inland areas, particularly on the St. Lawrence and the St. John Rivers, at least as early as 1849, and the new trend in appearance finally reached the coast about 25 years later. In the period of transition, the high-peaked model developed toward the St. Francis type, or that of the modern "Indian" canvas canoe, as well as toward the low-ended type.

One of the later developments took place on the St. John River, in New Brunswick, where two Indians, Jim Paul and Peter Polchies, both of St. Marys, in 1888 built for a Lt. Col. Herbert Dibble of Woodstock the racing canoe illustrated above (fig. 66). This canoe, 19 feet 6½ inches long overall and only 30½ inches extreme beam, was of a design perhaps not characteristic of any particular type of Malecite canoe, but it nevertheless shows two elements that may have appeared during the period of change in model. The sides amidships not only are without tumble-home, they flare outward slightly, but tumble-home is developed at the first thwart each side of the middle and continues to the headboards. The bottom shows a marked V-deadrise achieved by an unusual construction in a birch-bark canoe: the center strake of the sheathing is shaped in a shallow V in cross section, its width being about 2½ inches amidships and tapering each way toward the ends, and its thickness along the longitudinal centerline being about ⅝ inch and tapering to about ¼ inch at the edges; the two lengths of the strake are butted, not lapped, amidships, though the rest of the sheathing is lapped at the butts in the usual way and is uniformly ¼ inch thick. In this manner a ridge that gives a V-deadrise is formed down the centerline of the bottom, though the frames are bent in a flattened curve from bilge to bilge. The bottom has very little rocker, the rise being only 1 inch, and this takes place in the last 2 feet inboard of the heel of the stem piece.

Figure 67

Sharp-Ended 2½-Fathom Hunting Canoe for use on tidal river. Built by the Passamaquoddy Indian Peter Denis, it shows what may be the primitive construction method of obtaining a V-form in hull.

Another feature in this canoe is the end profile; the curved ends are strongly raked, the curve used being the same as that in the old Malecite type, but with the stem-pieces reversed, so that the quick turn is at the head, near the sheer, rather than at the heel. As a result, the gunwales come to the ends in a straight, rising line for the last 16½ inches rather than as a sudden lift near the ends. The stem-heads stand a little above the rail caps. The headboards belly toward the ends and are raked in the same direction.

The use of a V-shaped keel piece in the sheathing has been found in a St. Francis canoe from the St. Lawrence country; this may be a rather old practice. This racing canoe is very lightly built and much decorated, the date 1888 being worked into the hull near one end.

Another canoe having a marked V-deadrise was built sometime between 1890 and 1892 by Nicola (sometimes called Peter) Denis (sometimes spelled Dana), a Passamaquoddy, for his son Francis, who used it at Frenchman's Bay, Maine. The drawing above (fig. 67) shows a coastal-type hunting canoe, nailed along the gunwales but sewn elsewhere, and painted. The craft is 15 feet 9 inches overall and 14 feet 5 inches over the gunwales. The beam amidships is 32 inches over the gunwales, 29½ inches inside. The depth amidships is 11 inches, and at the headboards, 14½ inches. The ends are of the low rounded form; the profile shows a moderate tumble-home just below the sheer, which is a long fair curve without any quick lift toward the ends. The construction is of the usual Malecite type described in Chapter 3. The midsection shows a remarkable amount of V in the bottom without any tumble-home anywhere in the topsides. The V-bottom is rounded at the apex, where the keel would be; this is done by bending the ribs very sharply where they cross the centerline of the hull. A narrow strake of thin sheathing runs along the centerline of the canoe, and this is bent athwart-wise to follow the bends in the ribs there. The canoe had 46 ribs, each 2½ inches wide and ⁵⁄₁₆ inch thick, tapered slightly from the middle up to the gunwales. The gunwales, as previously noted, are nailed and the main gunwale members are of sawed spruce. The rest of the framework is cedar.

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.

A later canoe built on the St. Lawrence about 1890, probably near Rivière de Loup, is shown above. It is 16 feet 11 inches long overall, the beam over the gunwales is 33½ inches and inside it is 31 inches, the curve of the bilge being carried up to the gunwales. The bottom is flat for only a short width. The depth amidships is 11½ inches and the height of the ends is 20 inches, with 1 inch of rocker in the last two feet of length. The sheer is a long fair sweep without any quick upward lift near the ends. The headboards are very narrow and belly only very slightly toward the ends. The end profile illustrates the short radii and straight line form that marked many of the last Malecite birch-bark canoes of the St. Lawrence Valley. It is possible that the end-form was copied from the white man's St. Lawrence skiff, which usually had ends that were straight and nearly vertical, with a sharp turn into the keel.

Figure 70

Modern (1895) Malecite 2½-Fathom St. John River Canoe, with low ends and moderate sheer, developed late in the 19th century.

Since a Malecite canoe of the form having rounded low ends was the subject used to describe the construction of a birch-bark canoe in Chapter 3 (see p. [36]), there is no need to discuss all the details here. There was some variety in the sewing and lashing used in Malecite canoes; the combination of cross and spiral stitches in the ends and the use of a batten and the over-and-over stitch in the side panels are, of course, very common in these canoes. The occasional use of other stitches in the side panels and even in the gores would probably be normal, since individual preferences in such details were not controlled by a narrow tribal practice.

The Malecite are known to have hauled their canoes overland in the early spring, before the snow was entirely gone, by mounting the canoe on two sleds or toboggans in tandem, binding the canoe to each. This was done as late as the 1890's for early spring muskrat hunts. The Malecite also fitted their river canoes with outside protection when much running of rapids or "quick water" work was done. This protection consisted of two sets of battens (see p. [80]), each set being made up of five or six thin splints of cedar about ⅜ inch thick and 3 inches wide, tapering to 2 or 1½ inches at one end. These were held together by four strips of basket ash, bark cord, or rawhide. Each cord was passed through holes or slits made edgewise through each splint. The cords were located so that when the splints were placed on the bottom of the canoe, the cords could be tied at the thwarts. The tapered ends of the splints were at the ends of the canoe; the butts of the two sets being lapped amidships with the lap toward the stern. This formed a wooden sheathing, outside the bottom, to protect the bark from rocks and snags or floating ice that might be met in rapids and small streams. The fitting was used also by the Micmac and Ojibway; it is not known whether this was an Indian or European invention. The French canoemen called it barre d'abordage and the Malecite, P's-ta' k'n; the English woodsmen called the fitting "canoe shoes."

Figure 71

Malecite Canoe Details, Gear, and Gunwale Decorations.

The Malecite paddle was of various forms, as illustrated in figures 71 and 72, the predominant form being very similar to the paddle now used with canvas "Indian" canoes. The total length of the blade was usually about 28 to 30 inches; at 10 or 11 inches from the tip it was about 2½ inches wide. The handle was about 36 inches long. At just above the blade it was 1¼ inches wide and 1 inch thick. The handle was not parallel-sided. Near the top it widened gradually to about 2¼ inches at 2½ inches from the top; here the cross-grip was formed. The thickness of the handle reduced gradually from that given for just above the top of the blade to about ½ inch at about 5 inches below the cross-grip, and widened again to ⅝ inch at the point where the cross-grip was formed. The blade was ridged down its center. The lower end was rounded and the lower half of the blade was approximately half an ellipse in shape. The Passamaquoddy blade had its wide point within 7 inches of the lower tip, where it was about 6 inches wide. The handle was about 1⅛ inches in diameter just above the blade, and then tapered in thickness until it first became oval and then flat in cross section. The width remained nearly constant to a point within 12 to 16 inches of the cross-grip, then gradually widened to nearly 3 inches at the top. The blade was 33 to 36 inches long and the whole paddle somewhere between 73 and 76 inches long. The cross-grips were sometimes round, at other times they were merely worked off in an oval shape to fit the upper hand. The usual width of the cross-grip was just under 3 inches.

Figure 72

Malecite Canoe Details, Stem Profiles, Paddles, Sail Rig, and Salmon Spear.

Figure 73

Lines and Decoration Reconstructed From a Very Old Model of an ancient woods, or pack, canoe, showing short ends and use of fiddlehead and fire-steel form of decoration.

Formerly, the Malecite placed his personal mark, or dupskodegun, on the flat of the top of his paddle near the cross-grip. The mark was incised into the wood and the incised line was filled with red or black pigment when available. Sometimes the whole paddle, including the blade, was covered with incised line ornamentation. This was usually a vine-and-leaf pattern, or a combination of small triangles and curved lines. The Passamaquoddy used designs suggesting the needlework once seen on fine linens. Sometimes other designs showing animals, camps, or canoes were used.

Figure 74

Last Known Passamaquoddy Decorated Ocean Canoe to be built. Constructed in 1898 by Tomah Joseph, Princeton, Maine, on the same model as a canvas porpoise-hunting canoe.

The Malecite, particularly the Passamaquoddy, were especially skillful in decorating bark canoes, as can be seen from the illustrations (pp. [81]-87). Sometimes they used scraped winter bark decoration just along the gunwales; occasionally the whole canoe was decorated in this manner above the normal load waterline as described on page [87]. Usually, however, the bark decoration was confined to a long panel just below the gunwales and to the ends of the canoe. The personal "mark" of the owner-builder would usually be on the flaps near the ends, the wulegessis, meaning the outside bark of a tree or a child's diaper, but in canoe nomenclature used to indicate the protective cover which it formed for the gunwale-end lashings. Sometimes the Malecite placed his mark in the gunwale decoration. Sometimes he placed a picture or a sign on each side of the ends below the wulegessis, in about the position used for insignia on the canvas "Indian" canoe.

The swastika was used by the Passamaquoddy in a war canoe in colonial times and has been used later. The Passamaquoddy mark for an exceptional canoe (such as a war canoe that won the race home) was often on the wulegessis, and on a relatively modern canoe this mark, or gogetch, was a picture of "a funny-looking kind of doll." A common form of decoration in Passamaquoddy canoes was the fiddlehead curve which resembles the top of young fern shoots. This appears in numerous combinations; often double and back to back, joined with a long bar, or "cross." This particular combination is known as the "fiddlehead and cross" or as the "fire steel"; the latter because of a fancied resemblance of the form to the shape of the old fire-making steels of colonial times. A zigzag line appears to represent lightning to most Indians. A series of half-circles along the gunwales, with the rounded side down and just touching one another at the top, having a small circle in the center of each, represents "clouds passing over the moon." A similar series of half-circles without the center circles might mean the canoe was launched during a new moon; the number of half-circles shown would indicate the month.

Figure 75

Malecite Canoe Details and Decorations.

Yet there is not full agreement among Indians about the meaning of decorative forms; the crooked or zigzag line might also mean camps or the crooked score stick used in a Malecite game. The circle could mean sun or moon or month. A half-moon form might also be "a woman's earring," or a new moon. A circle with a very small one inside might be a "brooch," as well as "money." Right triangles, in a closely spaced series along the gunwales, apparently meant "door cloth," or tent door ("what you lift with your hand"). Shown on pages [84] and [85] are some Indian marks on the wulegessis, based upon the statements of old Malecites or upon their sketches.

After the Malecite had become Roman Catholic, a fish on the middle panel of a canoe meant that it had been launched on Friday. Pictures on a canoe sometimes indicated a mythological story; a picture of a rabbit sitting and smoking a pipe on one side of the canoe and a lynx on the other would be such a case. In Malecite mythology the rabbit was the ancestor of the tribe. He was also a great magician. The lynx was the mortal enemy of the rabbit, but in the mythological tales he was always overcome and defeated by the rabbit's magic. Hence, the idea conveyed is that "though the-lynx is near, the rabbit sits calmly smoking his pipe and as he knows he can overcome his enemy," or, in short, "self-confidence."

The Indian's mark on his canoe or weapons is not a signature to be read by anyone. The mark may, of course, be identified as to what it represents, but unless it is known as the mark used by a certain man it cannot be "read." Any mark could be used by an Indian, either because it had some connection with his activities or habits, or because he "likes it." The stone tobacco pipe used by Peter Polchies (see p. [85]) as his mark had no known connection with this Indian's habits or activities. However, his son, of the same name and well known also as "Doctor Polchies," took the same mark, but in his case it had a personal meaning since he was noted locally for his skill in making stone pipes. Another case was a Passamaquoddy who at every opportunity used to pole his canoe in preference to paddling. As a result he had become known as "Peter of the Pole" or "Peter Pole" and he then used as a canoe mark a representation of a setting pole. In submitting sketches of the marking on the wulegessis of canoes to old Indians it was seldom possible to learn the identity of the owner or builder, since the marks were usually not known to those questioned. In more recent times, the educated Malecite signed his name in English on his canoe and thus gave it more permanent identification.

Figure 76

Wulegessis Decorations

"mark of Mitchell Laporte"

"that pot hanging was used by three or four generations—it was mark on John Lolar's canoe in 1872"

"I made marks like this on wulegessis and sometimes on middle" (Charlie Bear)

"mark of Noel John Sapier" (tomahawk)

"mark of Noel Polchies" (paddle)

"mark of old Peter Polchies" (stone pipe)

"mark of Chief Neptune" (Passamaquoddy)

"mark of Louis Paul"

"canoe was finished on new moon" (Joe Ellis)

"mark of old Solomon Paul"

Figure 77

End Decorations, Passamaquoddy Canoe built by Tomah Joseph.

In duplicating a design, the Malecite apparently used a pattern, or stencil, which was preserved to allow duplication over a long period of time. The stencil was usually cut from birch bark, apparently an old practice, although whether it was done in prehistoric times cannot be determined. The long contact of the Malecites with Europeans is a factor to be considered in such matters. This is sometimes shown in picture-writing on a canoe; one, for instance, showed a white man fishing with rod and line from a canoe with an Indian guide. On the opposite side was the representation of an Indian camp beside two trees, a kettle over the fire and the brave sitting cross-legged smoking his pipe, indicating, of course, "comfort and contentment."

Asking old Indians to identify or give the names of decorations, Adney recorded statements which indicate their thought in regard to such matters. There were used, for example, two forms of the half-moon or crescent; one was quite open at the points which plainly indicated a half-moon, but the other was more nearly closed:

Mrs. Billy Ellis, widow of Frank Francis, a Malecite, said of them, "Old Indian earrings, that is only what I can call them. Also in nose. Wild Indian made them of silver or moose-bone, I guess he thought he looked nice; it looked like the devil." Joe Ellis, an old canoe builder, also called this form "earrings" and when asked why an Indian would put these on a canoe, replied "He will think what he will put on here. He might have seen his wife at bow of canoe, and put it on [there]." Shown the right-triangle-in-series design, Mrs. Ellis said "I fergit it but I will remember; what you lift with your hand, we call it that—camp door" (referring to the cloth or hide hung over a camp door, and raised at one corner to enter, so that the opening is then divided diagonally).

In a later period, the Malecite usually confined decoration to the wulegessis and to the pieced-out bark amidships, the panel formed on each side. The wulegessis was of various forms; its bottom was sometimes shaped like a cupid's bow, sometimes it was rectangular. A common form was one representing the profile of a canoe. Being of winter bark, it was red or brown, with the part where the design was scraped showing white or yellow. The center panel was also of winter bark, and the design on it showed a similar contrast in color. Even when the bark cover was not pieced out, the panel was formed by scraping all the cover except a panel amidships on each side. Old models indicate that the early Malecite canoes may have used decoration all over above the waterline (see p. [81]) far more frequently than has been the recent custom. The decorations were a fiddlehead design in a complicated sequence so that it bore a faint resemblance to the hyanthus in a formal scroll, but the design apparently had no ceremonial significance; it was used for the same reason given Adney for so many forms of bark decoration, "it looked nice."

Figure 78

End Decorations, Passamaquoddy Canoe built by Tomah Joseph.

Figure 79

Passamaquoddy Decorated Canoe built by Tomah Joseph.

The drawings and plans on pages [71] to 87 will serve better than words to show these characteristic designs and decorations. It is doubtful that color, paint or pigment, was used in decorating the Malecite bark canoes before the coming of Europeans, but it was employed occasionally in the last half of the 19th century. The beauty of the Malecite canoe designs lay not in the barbaric display of color characteristic of the large fur-traders' canoes, but in the tasteful distribution of the scraped winter bark decoration along the sides of the hull. The workmanship exhibited by the Malecite in the construction of their canoes was generally very fine; indeed, they were perhaps the most finished craftsmen among Indian canoe-builders.

St. Francis

The tribal composition of the Abnaki Indians is somewhat uncertain. The group was certainly made up of a portion of the old Malecite group, the Kennebec and Penobscot, but later also included the whole or parts of the refugee Indians of other New England tribes who were forced to flee before the advancing white settlers. It is probable that among the refugees were the Cowassek (Coosuc), Pennacook, and the Ossipee. There were also some Maine tribes among these—the Sokoki, Androscoggin, (Arosaguntacook), Wewenoc, Taconnet, and Pequawket. It is probable that the tribal groups from southern and central New England were mere fragments and that the largest number to make up the Abnaki were Malecite. The latter in turn were driven out of their old homes on the lower Maine coast and drifted northwestward into the old hunting grounds of the Kennebec and Penobscot, northwestern Maine and eastern Quebec as far as the St. Lawrence. The chief settlement was finally on the St. Francis River in Quebec, hence the Abnaki were also known as the "St. Francis Indians." These tribesmen held a deep-seated grudge against the New Englanders and, by the middle of the 18th century, they had made themselves thoroughly hated in New England. Siding with the French, the St. Francis raided the Connecticut Valley and eastward, taking white children and women home with them after a successful raid, and as a result the later St. Francis had much white blood. They were generally enterprising and progressive.

Little is known about the canoes of these Abnaki during the period of their retreat northwestward. It is obvious that the Penobscot, at least, used the old form of the Malecite canoe. What the canoes of the other tribal groups were like cannot be stated. However, by the middle of the 19th century the St. Francis Indians had produced a very fine birch-bark canoe of distinctive design and excellent workmanship. These they began to sell to sportsmen, with the result that the type of canoe became a standard one for hunting and fishing in Quebec. When other tribal groups discovered the market for canoes, they were forced to copy the St. Francis model and appearance to a very marked degree in order to be assured of ready sales. It is obvious, from what is now known, that the St. Francis had adapted some ideas in canoe building from Indians west of the St. Lawrence, with whom they had come into close contact. However, they had also retained much of the building technique of their Malecite relatives. Hence, the St. Francis canoes usually represent a blend of building techniques as well as of models.

The St. Francis canoe of the last half of the 19th century had high-peaked ends, with a quick upsweep of the sheer at bow and stern. The end profile was almost vertical, with a short radius where it faired into the bottom. The rocker of the bottom took place in the last 18 or 24 inches of the ends, the remaining portion of the bottom being usually straight. The amount of rocker varied a good deal; apparently some canoes had only an inch or so while others had as much as four or five. A few canoes had a projecting "chin" end-profile; the top portion where it met the sheer was usually a straight line.

The midsection was slightly wall-sided, with a rather quick turn of the bilge. The bottom was nearly flat across, with very slight rounding until close to the bilges. The end sections were a U-shape that approached the V owing to the very quick turn at the centerline. The ends of the canoe were very sharp, coming in practically straight at the gunwale and at level lines below it. The gunwales were longer than the bottom and so the St. Francis canoes were commonly built with a building-frame which was nearly as wide amidships as the gunwales but shorter in length.

At least one St. Francis canoe, built on Lake Memphremagog, was constructed with a tumble-home amidships the same as that of some Malecite canoes. The rocker of the bottom at each end started at the first thwart on each side of the middle and gradually increased toward the ends, which faired into the bottom without any break in the curves. The end profiles projected with a chin that was full and round up to the peaked stem heads. The sheer swept up sharply near the ends to the stem heads. This particular canoe represented a hybrid design not developed for sale to sportsmen, and the sole example, a full-size canoe formerly in The American Museum of Natural History at New York and measured by Adney in 1890, is now missing and probably has been broken up.

Figure 80

St. Francis 2-Fathom Canoe of About 1865, with upright stems. Built for forest travel, this form ranged in size from 12 feet 6 inches overall and 26½-inch beam, to 16 feet overall and 34-inch beam.

The St. Francis canoes were usually small, being commonly between 12 and 16 feet overall; the 15-foot length usually was preferred by sportsmen. The width amidships was from 32 to 35 inches and the depth 12 to 14 inches. The 14-foot canoe usually had a beam of about 32 inches and was nearly 14 inches deep; if built for portaging the ends were somewhat lower than if the canoe was to be used in open waters. Canoes built for hunting might be as short as 10 or 11 feet and of only 26 to 28 inches beam; these were the true woods canoes of the St. Francis.

The gunwale structure of the St. Francis canoes followed Malecite design; it was often of slightly smaller cross section than that of a Malecite canoe of equal length, but both outwale and cap were of somewhat larger cross section. The stem-pieces were split and laminated in the same manner, but occasionally the lamination was at the bottom, due to the hard curve required where the stem faired into the bottom. Many such canoes had no headboards, the heavy outwales being carried to the sides of the stem pieces and secured there to support the main gunwales. If the headboard was used, it was quite narrow and was bellied toward the ends of the canoe. In some St. Francis canoes the bark cover in the rockered bottom near the ends showed a marked V. In the canoe examined by Adney at the American Museum of Natural History, the ribs inside toward the end showed no signs of being "broken," so it is evident that the V was formed either by use of a shaped keel-piece in the sheathing or by an additional batten shaped to give this V-form under the center strake. Since the V began where the rocker in the canoe started, in an almost angular break in the bottom, it is likely that a shaped batten had been used to form it. He could not verify this, however, as the area was covered by the frames and sheathing.

Figure 81

St. Francis Canoe of About 1910, with narrow, rockered bottom, a model popular with guides and sportsmen for forest travel.

The sheathing was in short lengths with rounded ends which overlapped, and it was laid irregularly in the "thrown in" style found in many western birch-bark canoes. The ribs were commonly about 2 inches wide and nearly ⅜ inch thick, the width tapering to roughly 1¾ inches under the gunwales. The ends of the ribs were then sharply reduced in width to a chisel point about 1 inch wide; the sides of the sharply reduced taper being beveled, as well as the end. A 15-foot canoe usually had 46 to 50 ribs.

The thwarts, unlike those of the Micmac and some Malecite canoes, in which the thwarts were unequally spaced, were equally spaced according to a builder's formula. The ends of the thwarts, or crossbars, were tenoned into the main gunwales and lashed in place through the three lashing holes in the ends of each thwart, except the end ones, which usually had but two. In some small canoes, however, two lashing holes were placed in all thwart ends. The design of the St. Francis thwart was as a rule very plain, gradually increasing in width from the center outwards to the tenon at the gunwale in plan and decreasing in thickness in elevation in the same direction. The ends of the main gunwales were of the half-arrowhead form, and were covered with a bark wulegessis, but the flaps below the outwales were sometimes cut off, or they might be formed in some graceful outline.

The bark cover was sometimes in one piece; when it was pieced out for width, the harness-stitch was used. In most canoes, the bark along the gunwale was doubled by adding a long narrow strip, often left hanging free below the gunwales and stopping just short of the wulegessis, which it resembled. It was sometimes decorated. A few St. Francis canoes with nailed gunwales omitted this doubling piece. When used, the doubling piece, as well as the end cover, were folded down on top of the gunwale before being sewn into place. The decoration of the St. Francis canoes seems to have been scant and wholly confined to a narrow band along the gunwale, or to the doubling pieces. The marking of the wulegessis had ceased long before Adney investigated this type of canoe and no living Indian knew of any old marks, if any ever had been used.

Figure 82

Low-Ended St. Francis Canoe with V-form end sections made with short, V-shaped keel battens outside the sheathing at each end. Note the unusual form of headboard, seen in some St. Francis canoes.

The ends were commonly lashed with a spiral or crossed stitch, but some builders used a series of short-to-long stitches that made groups generally triangular in appearance. The gunwale lashing was in groups about 2½ inches long, each having 5 to 7 turns through the bark. The groups were about 1½ to 1¼ inches apart near the ends and about 2 inches apart elsewhere. The groups were not independent but were made by bringing the last turn of each group over the top and inside the main gunwale in a long diagonal pass so as to come through the bark from the inside for the first pass of the new group. The caps were originally pegged, with a few lashings at the ends.

The ribs were bent green. After the bark cover had been sewn to the gunwales, the green ribs were fitted roughly inside the bark, with their ends standing above the gunwales, and were then forced into the desired shape and held there, usually by two wide battens pressed against them by 7 to 10 temporary cross struts. After being allowed to dry in place, the ribs were then removed, the sheathing was put into place, and the ribs, after a final fitting, were driven into their proper positions. Some builders put in the ribs by pairs in the shaping stage, one on top of the other, as this made easier the job of fitting the temporary battens. The forcing of the ribs to shape also served to shape the bark cover, and the canoe was placed on horses during the operation, so that the shape of the bottom could be observed while the bark was being moulded. Some builders used very thin longitudinal battens between the bark and the green ribs to avoid danger of bursting the bark.

The canoe was built on a level building bed, in most instances apparently, with the ends of the building frame blocked up about an inch. It seems possible, however, that narrow bottom canoes may have been built with the bed raised 2 or 3 inches in the middle, rather than employing a narrow building frame. The construction of the building frame was the same as among the western Indians and as described in Chapter 3.

Figure 83

St. Francis-Abnaki Canoe for Open Water, a type that became extinct before 1890. From Adney's drawings of a canoe formerly in the Museum of Natural History, New York. Details of Abnaki canoes are also shown.

In preparing the ribs, a common practice was the following: Assume, for example, that there are 10 ribs from the center to the first thwart forward; these are laid out on the ground edge-to-edge with the rib under the center thwart to the left and the rib under the first thwart to the right. On the rib to the left the middle thwart is laid so that its center coincides with that of the rib, and the ends of the thwart are marked on the rib. The same is done to the rib on the far right, over which the first thwart is laid as the measure. On each side of the centerline the points marking the ends of the thwarts are then joined by a line across the ribs, as they lie together, to mark the approximate taper of the canoe toward the ends, at the turn of the bilge. Each rib is taken in turn from the panel and with it is placed another from the stock on hand to be set in a matching position on the other side of the middle thwart, toward the stern; the pair, placed flat sides together, are then bent over the knee at, or outside of, the marks or lines. The ribs in the next portion of the canoe's length are shaped in the same manner, using the lengths of the first and second thwarts as guides. Thus, the ribs are given a rough, preliminary bend before being fitted inside the bark cover and stayed into place to season. This method allowed the bilge of the canoe to be rather precisely determined and formed during the first stages of construction. At the ends, of course, the ribs are sharply bent only in the middle. Since the full thwart length makes a wide bottom, by setting the length of the rib perhaps a hand's width less than that of the whole thwart, the narrow bottom is formed.

The rough length of the ribs was twice the length of the thwarts nearest them. Hackmatack was used for thwarts by the St. Francis Indians, rock maple being considered next best. Cedar was first choice for ribs, then spruce, and then balsam fir. Longitudinals were cedar or spruce. All canoe measurements were made by hand, finger, and arm measurements. Basket ash strips were often used in transferring measurements.

Figure 84

Model of a St. Francis-Abnaki Canoe Under Construction, showing method of moulding ribs inside the assembled bark cover.

From what has been said, it will be seen that the construction practice of the St. Francis did not follow in all details that of their Malecite relatives. The intrusion of western practices into this group probably took place some time after the group's final settlement at St. Francis. As they gradually came into more intimate relations with their western neighbors and drifted into western Quebec, beyond the St. Lawrence, their canoe building technique became influenced by what they saw to the westward. As would be expected, the St. Francis Abnaki began early to use nails in canoe building, but, being expert workmen, they retained the good features of the old sewn construction to a marked degree up to the very end of birch-bark canoe construction in southern Quebec, probably about 1915. It should perhaps be noted that what has been discovered about the St. Francis Abnaki canoes refers necessarily to only the last half of the 19th century, since no earlier canoe of this group has been discovered. The changes that took place between the decline of the Penobscot style of canoe and that of the later Abnaki remain a matter of speculation.

s: Figure 85

St. Francis-Abnaki Canoe.

Beothuk

The fourth group of Indians, classed here as belonging to the eastern maritime area, are the Beothuk of Newfoundland. Historically, perhaps, these Indians should have been discussed first, as they were probably the first of all North American Indians to come into contact with the white man. However, so little is known about their canoes that it has seemed better to place them last, since practically all that can be said is the result of reconstruction, speculation, and logic founded upon rather unsatisfactory evidence. The tribal origin of the Beothuk has long been a matter of argument; they are known to have used red pigment on their weapons, equipment, clothes, and persons. A prehistoric group that once inhabited Maine and the Maritime Provinces appears to have had a similar custom; these are known as the "Red Paint People," and it may be that the Beothuk were a survival of this earlier culture. But all that can be said with certainty is that the Beothuk inhabited Newfoundland and perhaps some of the Labrador coast when the white man began to frequent those parts. The Beothuk made a nuisance of themselves by stealing gear from the European fishermen, and by occasionally murdering individuals or small groups of white men. Late in the 17th century, the French imported some Micmac warriors and began a war of extermination against the Beothuk. By the middle of the 18th century the Newfoundland tribe was reduced to a few very small groups, and the Beothuk became extinct early in the 19th century, before careful investigation of their culture could be made.

Their canoes were made to a distinctive model quite different from that of the canoes of other North American Indians. The descriptions available are far from complete and, as a result, many important details are left to speculation. Some parts of the more complete descriptions are obscure and do not appear to agree with one another. In spite of these difficulties, however, some information on the canoes is rather specific; by using this, together with a knowledge of the requirements of birch-bark canoe construction, and by reference to some toy canoes found in 1869 in the grave of a Beothuk boy, a reasonably accurate reconstruction of a canoe is possible.

Captain Richard Whitbourne had come with Sir Humphrey Gilbert to Newfoundland in 1580 and revisited the island a number of times afterward. In 1612 he wrote that the Beothuk canoes were shaped "like the wherries of the River Thames," apparently referring to the humped sheer of both; in the wherry the sheer swept up sharply to the height of the oar tholes, in profile, and flared outward, in cross section.

John Gay, a member of the Company of Newfoundland Plantation, wrote in 1612 that Beothuk canoes were about 20 feet long and 4½ feet wide "in the middle and aloft," that the ribs were like laths, and that the birch-bark cover was sewn with roots. The canoes carried four persons and weighed less than a hundredweight. They had a short, light staff set in each end by which the canoes could be lifted ashore. "In the middle the canoa is higher a great deale, than at the bowe and quarter." He also says of their cross section: "They be all bearing from the keel to portlesse, not with any circular, but with a straight, line."

Joann de Laet, writing about 1633, speaks of the crescent shape of the canoes, of their "sharp keel" and need of ballast to keep them upright; he also states that the canoes were not over 20 feet long and could carry up to five persons.

The most complete description of the Beothuk canoe was in the manuscript of Lt. John Cartwright, R.N., who was on the coast of Newfoundland in 1767-1768 as Lieutenant of H.B.M. Ship Guernsey. However, some portions are either in error or the description was over-simplified. For example, Cartwright says that the gunwales were formed with a distinct angle made by joining two lengths of the main gunwale members at the elevated middle of the sheer. This hardly seems correct since such a connection would not produce the rigidity that such structural parts require, given the methods used by Indians to build bark canoes. The three grave models show that the sheer was actually curved along its elevated middle. It is possible that Cartwright saw a damaged canoe in which the lashings of the scarf of the gunwales had slackened so that the line of sheer "broke" there. Cartwright is perhaps misleading in his description of the rocker of the keel as being "nearly, if not exactly, the half of an ellipse, longitudinally divided." The models show the keel to have been straight along the length of the canoe and turned up sharply at the ends to form bow and stern. Cartwright also states the keel piece was "about the size of the handle of a common hatchet" amidships, or perhaps 1 inch thick and 1½ inches wide, and tapered toward the ends, which were about ¾ inch wide and about equally thick. The height of the sheer amidships was perhaps two-thirds the height of the ends.

Figure 86

A 15-Foot Beothuk Canoe of Newfoundland with 42½-inch beam, inside measurement, turned on side for use as a camp. It gives headroom clearance of about 3 feet, double that of an 18-foot Malecite canoe with high ends. When the ends were not high enough to provide maximum clearance, small upright sticks were lashed to bow and stern. The shape of the gunwales would permit the canoe to be heeled to an angle (more than 35°) which would swamp a canoe of ordinary sheer and depth. (Sketch by Adney.)

Nearly all observers, Cartwright included, noted the almost perfect V-form cross section of these canoes, with the apexes rounded off slightly and the wings slightly curved. From an interpretation of Cartwright's statements, it appears that after the bark cover had been laced to the gunwales, the latter were forced apart to insert the thwarts, as in some western Indian canoe-building techniques. The three thwarts are described as being about two fingers in width and depth. It is stated that the gunwales were made up of an inner and outer member and all were scarfed in the middle to taper each way toward the ends, the outer member serving as an outwale or guard. Cartwright also states that the inside of the bark cover was "lined" with "sticks" 2 or 3 inches broad, cut flat and thin. He refers also to others of the same sort which served as "timbers" so he is describing both the sheathing and the ribs as being 2 or 3 inches wide. He does not say how the thwarts were fitted to the gunwales, how high the ends were, how the ends of the gunwales were formed, nor does he give any details of the sewing used. However, the grave models suggest the form of sewing probably used and the approximate proportions of sheer.

An old settler told James Howley that the Beothuk canoes could be "folded together like a purse." Considering the construction required in birch-bark canoes, this is manifestly impossible; perhaps what the settler had seen was a canoe in construction with the bark secured to shaped gunwales, ready for the latter to be sprung apart by thwarts, as in opening a purse. Howley also obtained from a man who had seen Beothuk canoes a sketch which shows a straight keel and peaked ends, confirmed in all respects by the grave models or toys.

The toy canoes so often referred to here were found by Samuel Coffin in an Indian burial cave on a small island in Pilley's Tickle, Notre Dame Bay (on the east coast of Newfoundland), in 1869. Among the graves in the cave, one of a child, evidently a boy, was found to contain a wooden image of a boy, toy bows and arrows, two toy canoes and a fragment of a third, packages of food, and some red ochre. With one of the canoes was a fragment of a miniature paddle. One of the canoes was 32 inches long, height of ends 8 inches, height of side amidships 6 inches, straight portion of keel 26 inches and beam 7 inches, as shown by Howley.

In Newfoundland there was very fine birch but no cedar. There was, however, excellent spruce which would take the place of cedar. It seems certain, then, that all the framework of the Beothuk canoes was of spruce. It seems likely that they were never built of a single sheet of birch but were covered with a number of sheets sewn together, as in other early Indian birch-bark canoes. The canoe birch of Newfoundland grew to a diameter of 2 to 2½ feet at the butt, which would produce a sheet of birch of 6 to 7 feet width; the length would be decided by how far up the tree the Indian could climb to make the upper cut. As has been stated, the prehistoric Indians seemingly made little attempt to build birch-bark canoes of long lengths of bark, preferring to use only the bark obtainable near the ground and above the height of the winter snows.

The form of the Beothuk canoes, particularly the lack of bilge and the marked V-form, has caused much speculation. One writer assumed that the form was particularly suited for running rapids. Actually, the Beothuk appeared to have used canoes for river travel very rarely, as few rivers in their country were suited for navigation. Instead, they seem to have been coast dwellers and to have used canoes for coastal travel and for voyages from island to island.

Their canoes were undoubtedly designed for open-water navigation, and the V-form was particularly suitable for this. The draft aided in keeping the canoe on its course with either broadside or quartering winds, and if the Beothuks knew sail, the hull-form would have served them well. It is quite evident that the Beothuk canoes used ballast in the form of stones or heavy cargo. Stones would have been placed along the keel piece and covered with moss and skins. The strongly hogged sheer was useful in protecting cargo amidships from spray and, in picking up a seal or porpoise, the canoe could be sharply heeled without taking in water. The V sections fore and aft were suitable for rough-water navigation; because of its form and the weight of ballast, the canoe would pass partly over and through the wave-top without pounding. If a wave of such height as to overtop the gunwales just abaft the stem were met, the strongly flaring sides would give reserve buoyancy, causing the canoe to lift quickly as the wave reached up the sides.

The small sticks in the ends, mentioned by John Gay, served not only for lifting the canoe but also as braces to support the canoe at a given angle when turned over ashore to serve as a shelter. The Beothuk canoe, because of its form, was not well suited for portaging, and it must be concluded that little of this was done. In coastal voyages, the canoe would be unloaded and brought ashore each night to serve as a shelter.

It is believed that the gunwale lashing of these canoes was in groups, as in the Malecite. Howley questioned an old Micmac who had seen the Beothuk lashing; he likened it to the continuous lashing used by his own people, indicating some form of group wrapping, at least. It is probable that the group lashings were let into the gunwales by shallow notching at each group, a common Indian practice when no rail cap was used, to prevent abrasion from the paddle or from loading and unloading the canoe. The lacing of the ends appears to have been in the common spiral stitch, judging by the grave models. These, however, show a continuous wrapping at the gunwales, a common simplification found in Indian canoe models, representing either group or continuously wrapped gunwales indiscriminately.

The paddle of the Beothuks had a long, narrow blade, probably with a pointed tip and a ridged surface. The shape is nearly spatulate. The handle is missing from the grave model but was perhaps of the usual "hoe-handled" form without a top cross-grip.

From these descriptions and on the basis of common Indian techniques in birch-bark canoe construction, the form and methods of building the Beothuk canoe can be reconstructed. The drawing on page [97] shows the probable shape and appearance of the finished canoe. It seems likely that a level building bed was first prepared. The keel, probably rectangular in cross section, was then formed of two poles placed butt-to-butt, worked to shape, and scarfed. The fastening of the scarf was probably two or more lashings let into the surface of the wood. These lashings are assumed to have been of split-root material but may have been sinew. Possibly to strengthen the scarfs, pegs were also used, a technique consistent with the state of Beothuk culture. The keel probably had its ends split into laminae to allow the sharp bend required to form the bow and stern pieces; and it was probably treated with hot water and staked out to the desired profile. The main gunwales were similarly made and worked to the predetermined sheer which, in staking out, was hogged to a greater degree than was required in the finished canoe. The ends of the gunwales were apparently split into laminae to allow the shaping of the sharp upsweep of the sheer close to bow and stern. The outwales were probably formed in the same manner, after which the three thwarts were made and the material for ribs and sheathing prepared. The ribs were apparently bent to the desired shape, using hot water, and were either staked out or tied to hold them in form until needed.

Figure 87

Beothuk Canoe, Approximate Form and Construction

The keel was then laid on the bed and a series of stakes, perhaps 4½ feet long, were driven into the bed on each side of the piece in opposing pairs at intervals of perhaps 2 or 3 feet. The stakes and keel piece were then removed and the bark cover laid over the bed. This may have been in two or three lengths, with the edges overlapped so that the outside edge of the lap faced away from what was to be the stern. The keel was then placed on the bark and weighted down with a few stones or lashed at the stem heads to the end stakes; then the bark was folded up on each side of the keel, and the stakes slipped back into their holes in the bed and driven solidly into place, perhaps with the tops angled slightly outward. The heads were then tied together across the work and battens placed along the stakes and the outside of the bark to form a "trough" against which the cover could be held with horizontal inside battens. These were secured by "inside stakes" lashed to each outside stake in the manner used in building eastern Indian canoes (see p. [45]). The bark cover now stood on the bed in a sharp V form, with the keel supported on the bed, the ends of the bark supported by the end stakes, and both held down by stones along the length of the keel. An alternative would have been to fix heavy stakes at the extreme bow and stern of the keel and to lash the stem-heads firmly to these in order to hold the keel down on the bark.

Next the main gunwales, prebent to the required form, were brought to the building bed and their ends temporarily lashed to stem and stern. The bark was brought up to these, trimmed, folded over their tops, and secured by a few temporary lashings. Then the outwales were placed outside the bark with their ends temporarily secured, and a few pegs were driven through outwale, bark, and main gunwales, or a few permanent lashings were passed. The bark cover was next securely lashed to the gunwales and outwales combined, all along the sheer to a point near the ends. The excess bark was then trimmed away at bow and stern and the cover was laced to the end pieces to form bow and stern. This lacing must have passed through the laminations of the stem and stern pieces in the usual manner, avoiding the spiral lashing that held the laminae together. The ends of the gunwales and outwales were next permanently lashed together with root or other material and to the stem and stern pieces. This done, the gunwales were spread apart amidships, pressing the stakes outward still more at the tops. At this point the tenons may have then been cut in the main gunwales and the thwarts inserted. This method, incidentally, was used in building some western Indian bark canoes.

The usual steps of completing a birch-bark canoe would then follow—the insertion of sheathing, held in place by temporary ribs, and then the driving home of the prebent ribs under the main gunwales, with their heads in the spaces between the group lashings along the gunwales and against the lower outboard corner of the main gunwale member, which was probably beveled as in the Malecite canoe. The sheathing may have been in two or three lengths, except close to the gunwale amidships where one length would serve. On each side of the keel piece a sheathing strake was placed which was thick on the edge against the keel but thin along the outboard edge, in order to fair the sheathing into the keel piece.

At some point in this process, the bark cover was pieced out to make the required width, and gores were cut in the usual manner. In spreading the gunwales, the bow and stern would have to be freed from any stakes, as these would tend to pull inboard slightly as the gunwales were spread in the process of shaping the hull. The ribs could have been put in while green and shaped in the bark cover by use of battens and cross braces inside, as were those of the St. Francis canoes.

The sewing of the bark cover at panels and gores would take place before the sheathing and ribs were placed, of course. A 15-foot canoe when completed would have a girth amidships of about 65 to 68 inches if the beam at the gunwales were 48 inches, and a bark cover of this width could be taken from a tree of roughly 20 inches in diameter. Hence, there may have been little piecing out of the bark for width. In the form of the Beothuk canoe as reconstructed there is nothing that departs from what is possible by the common Indian canoe-building techniques. The finished canoe would, in all respects, agree with most of the descriptions that have been found and would be a practical craft in all the conditions under which it would be employed.

These were the only birch-bark canoes supposed to have made long runs in the open sea clear of the land. In them the Beothuk are supposed to have made voyages to the outlying islands, in which runs in open water of upward of 60 miles would be necessary, and they probably crossed from Newfoundland to Labrador.

The V-form used by the Beothuk canoe was the most extreme of all birch-bark canoe models in North America, although, as has been mentioned, less extreme V-bottoms were used elsewhere. The Beothuk canoe may have been a development of some more ancient form of bark sea canoe also related to the V-bottom canoes of the Passamaquoddy. The most marked structural characteristic of the Beothuk canoe was the keel; the only other canoe in which a true keel was employed was the temporary moosehide canoes of the Malecite.

The Beothuk keel piece may have sometimes been nearly round in section like the keel of the Malecite moosehide canoe (p. [214]). The two garboard strakes of the sheathing may have been shaped in cross section to fair the bark cover from the thin sheathing above to the thick keel and at the same time allow the ribs to hold the garboards in place. They could, in fact, be easily made, since a radial split of a small tree would produce clapboard-like cross sections. This construction would perhaps comply better with Cartwright's description of the keel than that shown in the plan on page [97].

The sheer of the Beothuk canoe is an exaggerated form of the gunwale shape of the Micmac rough-water canoe but this, of course, is no real indication of any relationship between the two. Indeed, the probable scarfing of the gunwales of the Beothuk canoe might be taken as evidence against such a theory. On the other hand, the elm-bark and other temporary canoes of the Malecite and Iroquois had crudely scarfed gunwale members, as did some northwestern bark canoes.

Most of the building techniques employed by Indians throughout North America are illustrated by these eastern bark canoes, yet marked variation in construction details existed to the westward, as will be seen.

Chapter Five
CENTRAL CANADA

The Indians inhabiting central Canada were expert builders of birch-bark canoes and produced many distinctive types. The area includes not only what are now the Provinces of Quebec (including Labrador), Ontario, Manitoba, and the eastern part of Saskatchewan, but also the neighboring northern portions of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota in the United States. The migrations of tribal groups within this large area in historical times, as well as the influence of a long-established fur trade, have produced many hybrid forms of bark canoes and, in at least a few instances, the transfer of a canoe model from one tribal group to another. It is this that makes it necessary to examine this area as a single geographic unit, although a wide variation of tribal forms of bark canoes existed within its confines.

The larger portion of the Indians inhabiting this area were of the great Algonkian family. In the east during the 18th and 19th centuries, however, some members of the Iroquois Confederacy were also found, and in the west, from at least as early as the beginning of the French fur trade, groups of Sioux, Dakota, Teton, and Assiniboin. From the fur trade as well as from normal migratory movements there was much intermingling of the various tribes, and it was long the practice in the fur trade, particularly in the days of the Hudson's Bay Company, to employ eastern Indians as canoemen and as canoe builders in the western areas. These apparently introduced canoe models into sections where they were formerly unknown; as a result, the tribal classification of bark canoes within the area under examination cannot be very precise and the range of each form cannot be stated accurately. It was in this area, too, that the historical canot du maître (also written maître canot), or great canoe, of the fur trade was developed.

Most of central Canada, except toward the extreme north in Quebec and toward the south below the Great Lakes, is in the area where the canoe birch was plentiful and of large size. There the numerous inland waterways, the Great Lakes, and the coastal waters of James and Hudson Bays make water travel convenient, and natural conditions require a variety of canoe models. Hence, when Europeans first appeared in this area they found already in existence a highly developed method of canoe transportation. This they immediately adopted as their own, and in the long period lasting until very recent times, during which the development of the northern portion of this area was slow, the canoe remained the most important means of forest travel.

In the northeastern portion of the area, including the Province of Quebec (with Labrador) from a line drawn from the head of James Bay eastwardly through Lake St. John and the Saguenay River Valley to the St. Lawrence and thence northward to the treeline in the sub-Arctic, dwelt the eastern branch of the far-ranging Cree tribe. Those living on the shores of Hudson and James Bays, along the west side of the Labrador Peninsula, were known as the Eastern, Swamp, or Muskeg Cree. To the north, at the Head of Ungava Bay, around Fort Chimo, and to the immediate southward, were the Nascapee, or Nascopie, supposedly related to the Eastern Cree. In southern Labrador and in Quebec along the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and for some distance inland, dwelt another related tribal group now known as the Montagnais.

Although the most recent canoe forms employed by these three Indian groups were very much the same, this may not have been the case earlier. A common canoe model in this area was the so-called "crooked canoe," in which there was a very marked fore-and-aft rocker to the bottom without a corresponding amount of sheer; as a result the canoe was much deeper amidships than near the ends. Another common model had a rather straight bottom fore and aft, with some lift near the ends and a corresponding amount of sheer. Between these was a hybrid which had some fore-and-aft rocker in the bottom and a very moderate sheer. Not until the 1870's was any detailed examination made of the canoes in this area; then it appeared that the crooked canoe might be the tribal model of the eastern Cree only, while the Nascapee employed a straight-bottom model, but it is possible that the examination was limited and that Nascapee use of the crooked canoe was simply not observed. By 1900, however, the crooked model was in use not only by the eastern Cree and the Nascapee but also by the Montagnais.

Figure 88

Montagnais Crooked Canoe. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)

In the area around Fort Chimo and at the northern ranges of the eastern Cree and of the Montagnais the lack of good birch bark made it necessary to make up the bark cover out of many small pieces. This not only was laborious but made a rough and rather unsightly cover. Hence, some of the northern builders, particularly the Nascapee, substituted spruce bark, which was available in quite large sheets. The use of the spruce bark, however, did not cause any of these people to depart markedly from the model or the method of constructing birch-bark canoes, as it did for the Indians in the maritime area.

At the time (1908) when Adney was carefully observing the canoes in this area he found that both crooked and straight-bottom canoes were being used by all three tribal groups, but with a variation in midsection form among individual builders. Both types were built with a midsection that had a wide bottom and vertical sides, or, as an alternative, a narrow bottom and flaring sides. The end profile of all these canoes showed chin. In some crooked canoes the profile was apparently an arc of a circle, but in most canoes the form was an irregular curve. The stem met the gunwale in a marked peak rounded very slightly at the head, as the result of the method by which the stem was constructed, but in the hybrid model used by the Nascapee the ends were low and not much peaked and the quick upward rise of the sheer near the ends was lacking. In cross section all these canoes became V-shaped close to the ends, regardless of the midsection form. For the straight-bottom canoe and in the hybrid form this resulted in very sharp level lines, but the very great rocker of the crooked canoe brought the ends well above the normal line of flotation, so that this type was quite full-ended at the level line in spite of the V-section.

It is apparent upon examining the crooked canoe that there was actually less variation in its form, in spite of differences in midsection shape, than in that of the straight-bottom canoe, owing to its very great depth amidships in proportion to its width. This proportion made necessary a very moderate flare in the narrow-bottom midsection and resulted in a rather wall-sided appearance, even in this model. The hybrid form, which fell between the extremes of the crooked canoe and the straight-bottom canoe, had a narrow-bottomed flaring-sided midsection, and its relatively moderate depth made obvious the flare in the topsides and thus created a distinctive model.

Figure 89

Birch-Bark Crooked Canoe, Ungava Cree. (Smithsonian Institution photo.)

Eastern Cree

The construction of canoes of the eastern Cree and related tribes seems generally like that of the Micmac craft. Instead of the gunwale method employed in the Maritime area, a building frame was used, and as a result the gunwales were longer than the bottom. In constructing the crooked canoe, the building frame must be heavily sheered, and there is evidence that the building bed was depressed amidships, rather than raised as was usual in the east. The great amount of rocker in the bottom in this form of Cree canoe made it necessary to block up the ends of the building frame to a very great height, and there was no need to raise the building bed at midlength, since the rocker extended the full length of the bottom. The bark cover had to be gored at closely spaced intervals to allow the rocker to be formed, and even in the straight-bottom model, the quick rise of the bottom near the ends required closely spaced gores there. In the straight-bottom model, however, the building bed was raised at midlength, as in eastern canoe-building, and the building frame was ballasted to a cupid's-bow profile, when on the bed, so as to achieve the combination of straight bottom amidships with sharply rising ends.

The gunwales were formed of the main gunwale member and a light gunwale cap, no outwale being employed. They were joined at the ends and, after hot water had been applied, were staked out with posts under the ends to obtain the required sheer. The thwarts were then tenoned into the main gunwales, though occasionally a canoe was built with "broken" gunwales, that is, the thwart-ends were let flush into the top and covered by the caps. Some builders did not spread the gunwales and place the thwarts until after the bark cover was lashed at the sheer; others used the eastern methods of assembling the gunwale structure prior to securing the bark cover at sheer. The bark cover was attached to the main gunwales with a continuous lashing, as in the Micmac canoes, but the bark was not always brought over the top of the gunwales. As a result, some canoes had a batten placed under the lashing, near the edge of the cover, to prevent the lashing from tearing away. Due to the lack of good root material, the lashing was often of rawhide. For all horizontal seams in the side panels of the bark cover, rawhide sewing over a root batten was used. The ends of the gunwales were supported by sprung headboards; in some canoes these were bellied toward the ends to such a degree that they almost paralleled the end profiles.

Figure 90

Nascapee 3-Fathom Canoe, Eastern Labrador. Similar canoes, with slight variations in model and dimensions, were used by all Ungava Indians: the Montagnais and the Eastern, or Swamp, Crees.

Figure 91

Montagnais 2-Fathom Canoe of Southern Labrador and Quebec, showing old decoration forms. Drawing based on small model of a narrow-bottom canoe built for fast paddling.

Figure 92

Crooked Canoe, 2½-Fathom, of the Ungava Peninsula, used by the Ungava-Cree, Montagnais, and Nascapee. Also built with a wide bottom and a slight tumble-home in the topsides.

Figure 93

Hybrid Model of the Nascapee-Cree Canoe, 2-Fathom, built of spruce or birch bark, with details of canoes and paddles.

The ends were formed by means of the same technique used for Micmac canoes; no inside stem-piece was employed and the bark cover was stiffened by outside battens covered by the lashing. In the Cree canoes, however, the stem battens were "broken" sharply at the sheer to form a slightly rounded peak where the end met the gunwale caps. The "break" in the battens was made by bending them very sharply, so that they were almost fractured. The Cree practice also differed from that of the Micmac, although not universally, by passing the lower end of the stem batten through the bark cover at the point where the stem met the bottom. The slit thus made was sealed with gum or, more recently, covered with cloth impregnated with gum. The stems were lashed in various ways; the most common was a spiral form up to the sheer. Near the gunwale caps crossed stitches or small, closely spaced wrappings were also employed. The tops of the battens, forming the peak of the stem, were brought along under the rail caps, in line with the gunwale lashings inboard, and secured with a continuous lashing for about 6 inches. In the northern parts of the area under discussion the stem lashing was often of rawhide.

Figure 94

Eastern Cree Crooked Canoe of rather moderate sheer and rocker. (Canadian Pacific Railway Company photo.)

Gunwale caps were wider than the gunwales and thus gave some protection to the lashing there. The ends of the gunwale caps were heavily tapered to allow the sharp bends necessary to carry them out on the stems. They were pegged or nailed to the gunwales, but at the ends were lashed; usually with two or three small group lashings over and under the stem battens, below the caps.

The most recent canoes had canvas covers instead of bark. Nails, tacks, and twine for sewing were used; otherwise they were built as the Indians built birch- and spruce-bark craft, and not as white men built canvas canoes and boats.

The framework of the canoes was usually spruce or larch. Toward the south and along the St. Lawrence some white cedar was used, and in the south maple was sometimes used for thwarts. The ribs of the canoes inspected by Adney were usually about 3 inches wide, and a short taper brought them to about 2 inches at the ends, where they were cut square across. They were spaced about 1 inch apart edge-to-edge amidships and somewhat further apart toward the ends of the canoe. The canoes usually had an odd number of ribs, as the first was placed under the thwart amidships. The last three ribs at the ends were "broken" at the centerline to allow them to take the necessary V-section there; but the fourth rib from each end was only sharply bent. In some canoes the heel of the very narrow headboard was stepped on the sheathing against the endmost rib, in others it was stepped, as in the Micmac canoes, on a frog which rested against the endmost rib.

Figure 95

Straight and Crooked Canoes, Eastern Cree.

In more recent times the sheathing was laid in one of two ways, according to the preference of the builder, but the existence of the two styles suggests that each was once a tribal-group method. One method of shaping the bottom sheathing was to employ a center, or keelson, piece in two lengths, the butts being overlapped amidships, parallel-sided except toward the stems, where it was tapered to fit the V-sections rather closely. The next strake outboard was short and was in the form of a shallow triangle with its base along the middle portion of the first strakes and about one-third the length of the bottom. Its apex was under the middle thwart. The next strake outboard was in two lengths lapped amidships, parallel sided along the arms of the triangular strake, and snied off at the ends to fit along the sides of the first strake. Another strake outboard of this was similar in form and position, but longer. Thus seven strake widths would complete the bottom sheathing. The side sheathing was narrow and slightly tapered; each strake in two lengths overlapped slightly amidships. The ends of the topside sheathing ran well into the ends, in most canoes, where they apparently served as stiffening. The second method of sheathing employed parallel-sided strakes throughout, laid side by side on the bottom, with the ends snied off to fit the form of the bark bottom. The existence of a model canoe made about 1850 (see p. [91]) supports the theory that the first method was originally the Montagnais tribal construction and that the more primitive second method was probably Cree or Nascapee.

The ribs were preformed and fitted to the canoe after drying out. They were bent to the desired shape in pairs and tied with a thong across the ends to hold their shape while drying. Some builders inserted a strut inside the bent ribs, parallel to the thong, protecting the surface of the inner rib by a pad of bark placed under each end of the strut. The pair of ribs might also be wrapped with a bark cord to help hold them together. To aid in handling, one pair of ribs might be nested inside another. As in eastern canoes the ribs under the gunwales were driven into place. At the ends they were canted toward the center, so that in the straight-bottom models they stood nearly perpendicular to the rocker of the bottom there; in the crooked canoe the ribs were all somewhat canted in this manner.

Figure 96

Montagnais Canvas-Covered Crooked Canoe under construction. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)

The paddles used in this area were made with parallel-sided blades, the end of the blade being almost circular. The handle might be fitted with a wide grip at the head or it might be pole-ended. It is impossible to say how early sails were used to propel canoes, but it is probable they were introduced by the fur traders. Square sails were being used on the coastal canoes at the time the earliest reference was made to these canoes, in the 1870's.

Little is known about the decorations employed by the eastern Cree. The Montagnais birch-bark model canoe of about 1850 (see p. [91]) has three small circles placed in a triangular position on the bow and a band along the bottom of the side panels. The circles and the bands are in red paint, but may have been intended to represent the dark inner rind left after scraping the winter bark cover. The use of decoration in this area after 1850 has not been noted in any available reference.

As a rule, the straight-bottom canoes were small, commonly between 12 and 18 feet overall, and the most popular size was 14 to 16 feet overall. A canoe of this size was usually employed as a hunters' canoe for forest travel, though it might be used occasionally along the coasts. These canoes were light and, in this respect, resembled the Micmac models shown in Chapter 4.

The original purpose of the crooked canoe is in question. Those travelers who saw this canoe in use on the Hudson Bay side of the Labrador Peninsula believed that it was designed for use in rough, exposed water. While it would be a desirable form for beach work in surf, the high ends would make paddling against strong winds very difficult. On the other hand the Montagnais used the crooked canoe for river navigation, particularly where rapids were to be run, and for this work it appears to have been well adapted. The crooked canoe was commonly built larger than the straight-bottom model, between 16 and 20 feet in length overall, and was a vessel of burden rather than a hunting canoe. Canoes up to 28 feet in length have been mentioned by travelers in this area but investigation indicates strongly that these were not the tribal form but the canot du nord, or north canoe of the Hudson's Bay Company traders.

Along the southern borders of their territory and to the westward the eastern Cree often built and used canoes modeled on those of their neighbors, the Têtes de Boule and the Ojibway. Hence the tribal classification does not hold good in these localities. Also, the eastern Cree were employed by the Hudson's Bay Company as builders of forms of the maître canot and canot du nord that are unlike their typical tribal model.

Têtes de Boule

The Têtes de Boule, particularly the western bands, were skilled canoe builders and had long been employed by the Hudson's Bay Company in the construction of large fur-trade canoes. Apparently made up of bands of Indians inhabiting lower Quebec, in the basin of the St. Maurice River and on the Height of Land, these bands had come down to the lower Ottawa River to trade with the local Algonkin tribe there in early times. They were known to the Algonkins, who had had some contact with civilization, as "wild Indians." They also came into close trading relations with the French colonists, as the Ottawa River was the early French canoe route between Montreal and Lake Superior. Because they cut their hair short, unlike the other Indians, these northern bands were nicknamed "Bull Heads," or "Round Heads," by the French traders, and the tribesmen soon came to accept this rather than their own designation of "White Fish People" as the tribal name. In more recent times, the name has been applied to groups of Indians living in western Quebec Province, near Lake Barrière and Grand Lake Victoria, but these do not consider themselves related to the St. Maurice bands.

It seems apparent that the canoe models of all these groups had been altered as a result of long contact with other tribal groups. Although the St. Maurice and the western bands were apparently not of the same tribal stock, their relations with the Algonkin may have brought about the use of a standard model by all.

Figure 97

Fiddlehead of Scraped Bark on bow and stern of a Montagnais birch-bark canoe at Seven Islands, Que., 1915.

Figure 98

Disk of Colored Porcupine Quills decorating canoe found at Namaquagon, Que., 1898. Within the 4-inch disk may have been an 8-pointed star.

The Têtes de Boule lived in an area where very superior materials for birch-bark canoe construction were plentiful. This, with the need for canoes imposed by the numerous waterways and the demand for canoes from white traders, made many of the tribesmen expert builders. Their small canoes, ranging from the 8-to 12-foot hunter's canoes to the 14-to 16-foot family canoes, were very similar in profile to the canoes of the St. Francis Abnaki. The Têtes de Boule canoes, however, were commonly narrower on the bottom, and in their construction a building frame was always used. The Têtes de Boule model was straight along the bottom for better than half the length and then rose rather quickly toward the ends. Similarly, the sheer was moderate amidships and increased toward the ends. The stems showed a chin and were much peaked at the gunwale ends. Most commonly the midsection had a flat bottom athwartships and a well-rounded bilge, giving the topsides, near the gunwale, a very slight outward flare. Some Têtes de Boule canoes had rather V-section ends in which the endmost rib was "broken" at the centerline. As a result the lines were sharp and the canoes paddled very easily.

Figure 99

A Fleet of 51 Birch-Bark Canoes of the Têtes de Boule Indians, assembled at the Hudson's Bay Company post, Grand Lake Victoria, Procession Sunday, August 1895. (Photo, Post-Factor L. A. Christopherson.)

For construction of the Têtes de Boule canoe, which was marked by good structural design and neat workmanship, the building bed was slightly raised at midlength, as was the general practice of the St. Francis builders. The building frame was usually about 6 inches less in width amidships, inside to inside, than were the gunwales, and from 15 to 18 inches shorter. The building frame was made quite sharp toward the ends so that, viewed from above, it rather approached a diamond form; this produced the very sharp lines that are to be seen in many examples of the Têtes de Boule canoes. The building frame was of course removed from the canoe as soon as the gunwales were in place and the bark cover lashed to them.

The gunwale structure, comprised of main gunwale members, caps, and outwales, was the same as in the Malecite canoes. The main gunwales were rectangular in cross-section, some being almost square, with the lower outboard corner bevelled off. Compared to those of eastern canoes of equal length, the main gunwales were unusually light; their depth and width rarely exceeded 1 inch, and in very small hunter's canoes these were often only about ¾ inch. Toward the ends, they tapered to ½ inch, or even slightly less. The ends of the main gunwales, usually of the common half-arrowhead form, were held together by rawhide or root thongs passed back and forth through horizontal holes in the members. After being thus lashed together, they were securely wrapped with thongs which usually went over gunwales and outwales and through the bark cover.

The gunwale caps, also light, were usually between ¼ and ½ inch thick and from 1 to 1½ inches wide. At the ends they were tapered in width and thickness, often to ³⁄₁₆ by ½ inch, so as to follow the quickly rising sheer there. The ends of the gunwales, caps, and outwales required hot-water treatment to obtain the required curve of the sheer. The caps were pegged to the gunwales and were secured at each end with two or three groups of lashings which passed around the outwales as well, and through the bark cover.

The outwales were likewise light battens between ¼ and ½ inch thick and from ¾ to 1¼ inches deep, the depth near the ends being tapered to ⅜ to ¾ inch so as to sheer correctly.

The bark cover had four or five vertical gores on each side of the middle thwart, the gore nearest each stem being commonly well inboard of the end thwarts. The side panels were usually deep amidships and narrowed toward the ends. A root batten was used under the stitching of the longitudinal seams of the side panels, which were sewn with a harness-maker's stitch. The top edge of the bark cover was brought over the top of the main gunwales, as in the Malecite canoes, and was secured by group wrappings passing over the gunwales and outwales, under the caps. These groups were not independent, the root thong being carried from group to group outside the bark in a long pass under the outwales. The groups of seven to nine turns were roughly an inch apart in many small canoes, and perhaps 1½ inches in the large craft. In the last birch-bark canoes in which no nails or tacks were used, wrappings of root thongs began with a stop knot, but this does not appear to have been the earlier practice.

Figure 100

Têtes de Boule Canoe.

The Têtes de Boule canoes had inside stem-pieces split, according to the size of the canoe, in four to six laminations and lashed with a bark or root thong in an open spiral in some canoes but close-wrapped in others. The stem-piece was as in the Malecite canoes, except that it ended under the rail cap, and did not pass through it as in the Eastern canoes; the heel was notched to receive the heel of the headboard. The bark was usually lashed through the stem, as in the Malecite construction. However, in some Têtes de Boule canoes, the stem close to the heel was not laminated and the bark was lashed to the solid part by an in-and-out stitch passing through closely spaced holes drilled in the stem piece. Above this, the lashing was the usual spiral which, in at least a few instances, was passed through the bark just inboard of the stem piece. Near the top of the stem the lashings sometimes were rather widely spaced and passed inboard of the stem-pieces; at other times, however, these lashings were more closely spaced and passed through the stem.

Ordinarily, at the ends of the canoe no wulegessis, or covers of bark, were used under the gunwale caps, although in one example examined a small cover had been inserted over the gunwale ends and under the caps, it did not extend below the outwales to form a wulegessis. In some canoes the bark cover was pieced up at the peak of the stems by a panel whose bottom faired into the bottom of the side panels.

A variety of methods was used to fit the gunwale caps at the ends of the canoe. Some builders carried the cap out beyond the gunwale ends, flat, over the edges of the bark cover and the top face of the outwale, but others tilted the cap outboard and downward. The ends of the caps came flush with the face of the stems. In an apparently late variation, the gunwales, instead of ending in the half-arrowhead, were snied off the inside and a triangular block was inserted between the ends. The gunwales were then pegged or nailed to the block and the whole secured with a root wrapping around them, before the outwales were in place. The first turn began by passing the root through a hole in the block near its inboard end, with a stop knot in the root.

The ends of the gunwales were supported by a narrow headboard sharply bellied toward the end of the canoe. The top of the headboard was notched to stand under the main gunwales; the center portion often was carried high and ended with a cylindrical top that was slightly swelled like the handle of a gouge or chisel. The heel was sometimes held in the stem-piece notch with a root lashing.

Figure 101

Têtes de Boule Canoes.

The thwarts, spaced equal distances apart, were tenoned into the gunwales as in the old Malecite canoes, and were secured with a peg and lashing through the two holes in the thwart ends. The middle thwart was usually formed with a shoulder, viewed in plan, that started 6 or 7 inches inboard of the inside face of the main gunwale. In form, this thwart usually swelled outward in a straight line from the tenon shoulder, then reduced in a curved line to about the width of the tenon tongue and, finally, increased again in a right-angle cut to the greatest width. From here it was reduced again in a long curve to the canoe's center line. The other thwarts usually had simple ends, wide at the tenon shoulder and reduced in a long curve to a narrow center. In elevation, all the thwarts were thin outboard and thick at the centerline of the canoe. The cross section of the center thwart at the centerline was square or nearly so, the first thwart on each side was rectangular in cross section at the center, and the end thwarts were similar, but very thin.

The sheathing of the Têtes de Boule canoes was thin, particularly at the ends of the strakes. The bottom was laid with a parallel-sided center strake going in first. This strake was in two lengths in a small canoe and three lengths in a large, the butts overlapping slightly. The rest of the strakes in the bottom were tapered toward the ends of the canoe. At the extremities of the canoe, the narrow ends of the strakes were very thin and overlapped along their edges, the bottom sheathing, when in place, thus following the diamond form of the building frame. The topside sheathing was laid up in short lengths with overlapping butts and edges in an irregular plan, those strakes along the bilges being longer than above. Toward the ends of the canoe these strakes were slightly tapered and the edges were very thin. The sheathing ended irregularly, outboard of the headboards, in narrow butts as in most eastern canoes.

Figure 102

Têtes de Boule Hunting Canoe, 1½-Fathom, with typical construction details and a paddle.

Figure 103

Têtes de Boule Canoe, 2½-Fathom, with some construction details.

The ribs, like the rest of the structure, were very light, usually ¼ to ⅜ inch thick and from about 1¼ to 1¾ inches wide, depending upon the size of the canoe. A few examples had ribs 2 inches wide, and still fewer had ribs up to 2½ inches wide. The spacing was usually close, somewhat more than an inch edge to edge amidships and a little more between the end thwarts and the headboards. The spacing amidships would average perhaps 3¼ inches, center to center. The ends of the ribs, in the last 2 or 3 inches, were reduced in width very sharply in a hollow, curved taper to ½ to ¾ inch wide, and were usually beveled on the inside edge. The thickness was also reduced by a cut on the inside, so that the ends were chisel-pointed with a short bevel on the inboard side. The rib ends were forced between the main gunwales and the bark cover, coming home in the bevel of the lower outboard edge of the main gunwales between the group lashings of the bark cover as in the Malecite canoes. The ribs were not prebent but were placed in the canoe when green, treated with hot water, and then allowed to dry into place. In preparing the rib, it was first bent over the knee. It was the custom of some builders to place under the building frame the ribs that were to go near the ends of the canoe, and to mark the point where they would be bent. Sometimes the endmost ribs that were to be "broken" at the centerline to form the V-section were split edgewise. A piece of the inner lamina was then cut out to one side of the center so that the inner laminae would lie flat against each other, and to prevent the inner half from buckling the rib was wrapped with a thong to one side of the "break."

Figure 104

Têtes de Boule Hunting Canoe, 2-Fathom, with wide bottom, showing structural details.

It does not appear to have been the common practice of the Têtes de Boule to decorate their small canoes, though when building for white men they would decorate if the buyer requested it.

The paddles used by the Têtes de Boule were somewhat like those of the eastern Cree but the blade was slightly wider near the tip than near the handle. The top grip was formed wide and thin, the taper from the lower grip to the upper one often being very long. The paddles were usually of white birch, but maple was used in a few of the examples examined.

The gunwales, outwales, and caps of the Têtes de Boule canoes were usually of spruce; the ribs and stem pieces, white cedar; the thwarts, white birch; the headboards, white cedar in all but one of the canoes inspected (in this, birch had been used). Jack pine was used also for thwarts, and cedar was sometimes used for the gunwale members; as would be expected, the builders used the materials that were at hand near the building sites.

Têtes de Boule fur-trade canoes, like those of the eastern Cree, appear to have had no relationship to the smaller tribal types, since they were constructed under supervision of white men. They will be discussed as a group on page [135].

Algonkin

The Algonkins were a tribe residing on the Ottawa River and its tributaries, in what are now the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, when the French first met them. They appear to have been a large and powerful tribe and were apparently competent builders and users of birch-bark canoes. They were not the same tribe as the Ottawa, who controlled the Lake Huron end of the canoe route between Montreal and Lake Superior, by way of the Ottawa River. These Ottawa were related to the Ojibway tribe and received their name from the French, who gave the name Outaouais, or "Ottaway," to all Indians, except the Hurons, who came from the west by way of the Ottawa. The Algonkins, because of their location, were much influenced by the French fur trade. Early in the 18th century they intermingled with certain Iroquois whom they allowed to settle with them, near Montreal, at the Lake of Two Mountains, later Oka. Thence they gradually spread out and lost tribal unity, until only small groups were left. These lived on the Golden Lake Algonkin Reserve, Bonshere River, Ontario; at Oka, Quebec; and elsewhere in western Quebec and eastern Ontario. It is possible that they were the first to build fur-trade canoes for the French, but evidence to support such a claim with any certainty is lacking.

Due to intermixing with other tribal groups and to the influence of the fur trade, in which they were long employed as canoe men and builders, the Algonkins no longer used a single tribal model of canoe. However, one of their models, which had high ends resembling those of the large fur-trade canoe, may have been the tribal type from which the fur-trade canoe was developed, as will be seen.

Figure 105

Old Algonkin Canoe.

The high-ended model, the oldest form known to have been used by this tribe, was narrow-bottomed, with flaring sides. The canoes seen were built with careful workmanship and in the old manner, without iron fastenings. They were light and easily paddled, yet would carry a heavy load. The ends were sharp at the line of flotation. The bottom was straight to a point near the ends, where it lifted somewhat. The sheer was rather straight over the middle portion of the canoe, then lifted slightly until close to the stem, where it rose sharply, becoming almost perpendicular at the ends of the rail caps. The midsection was slightly rounded across the bottom, with a well-rounded bilge and a gently flaring topside. The cross-section became V-shaped close to the headboards. The most marked feature in the appearance of this canoe was the profile of the ends. The stem line, beginning with a slight angle where it joined the bottom, bent outward in a gentle curve, reaching the perpendicular at a point a little more than half the height of the end, and from there it tumbled home slightly. In most of the canoes examined the top of the stem then rounded inboard in a quick, hard curve, usually almost half a circle, so that the stem was turned downward as it joined the outwale and gunwale cap. In a variation of this stem form, the top of the stem was cut off almost square, forming a straight line that ran parallel to the rise of the bottom below the stems to the point where it would meet the upturned outwale and cap. The ends of the outwales and caps were thus 3 or 4 inches inboard of the extremities. This form of stem, particularly when to top was rounded in a half-circle, approached the basic form of the ends of the fur-trade canoe.

Figure 106

Old Model, Ottawa River, Algonkin Canoe, combining capacity with easy paddling qualities.

All the examples of this form of canoe that were examined were small, from 14 to a little over 16 feet in length overall, but this is not proof that larger canoes of this type had not existed earlier.

The later and more common form of Algonkin canoe was the wabinaki chiman. A corruption of Abnaki, wabinaki to the later Algonkin meant the Malecite as well as the St. Francis Indians. The wabinaki chiman was built in lengths from 12 to 18 feet.

Iroquois living in the Algonkin territory during the period built this form of canoe as well as the older, high-ended form. The wabinaki chiman was very much like the St. Francis and Malecite canoes in appearance, but it was not an exact copy. The Algonkin version was commonly a narrow-bottom canoe with flaring topsides. There was some variation in the end profiles; most had the rather high, peaked ends of the St. Francis canoe. The sheer was rather straight until near the end, where it rose rapidly to the stem. The stem was rounded and was faired into the bottom. The top of the stem was often rather straight and tumbled home slightly, but on some it raked outward, much as did the stem of some Malecite canoes.

Another form of Algonkin canoe had a low sheer with only a slight lift toward the ends. In this canoe the stem might have a short, hard curve at the heel and an upper portion that was quite straight and slightly tumbled home; or the full height might be well rounded, with a slight tumble-home near the stem head.

In appearance these canoes were very like the straight-stem Malecite models. The wabinaki chiman was unquestionably copied from the eastern canoes that came into popularity among the Algonkin late in the 19th century, when white sportsmen were demanding canoes of the St. Francis and Malecite models. However, the Algonkin canoes differed somewhat from the eastern canoes not only in model but also in methods of construction.

Figure 107

Algonkin and Ojibway Stem-Pieces, models of old forms made by Adney: 1, 2, 3, Ojibway; 4, 5, 6, 7, Algonkin.

Algonkins used the same construction methods in both their canoe models, though the framework was not alike in all respects. The building frame was always used. For a 2-or 2½-fathom canoe this was made of two strips of cedar, 1½ inches wide and ¾ inch deep, that were bent edgewise, notched, and tied together at the ends with thongs of the inner bark of the basswood. These strips were held apart in the required shape by cedar crosspieces 1 inch wide and 1¾ inches deep, with the ends notched ¾ inch deep (the depth of the longitudinals) and the tops well rounded. The crosspieces, five in all, were fastened to the longitudinals with thongs passing through holes in the ends. The middle one was about 19½ inches between the inside faces of the longitudinals, those on each side of it were about 15½ inches long by similar measure, and the end ones were nearly 6 inches long and were located a foot or so from the extremities of the longitudinals. The outside width of the building frame amidships would thus be about 22½ or 23 inches.

Figure 108

Light, Fast 2-Fathom Hunting Canoe of the old Algonkin model.

The building bed was level, with a 6-inch-wide board, some 6 to 8 feet in length, sunk into the earth flush with the surface to insure a true line for the bottom. The outside stakes were of the usual sort described in building the Malecite canoe (pp. [40]-41). The wedge-shaped inside stakes, or clamp pieces, were 1½ inches wide, 1 inch thick, and 20 to 25 inches long. The posts for setting the height of the gunwales at the ends and at the crosspieces were not cut off square at the top as for the Malecite canoe, but were notched on the outside to take the gunwales. The heights of the posts were graduated, of course, to form the required sheer in the gunwales. Like the canoes of the Têtes de Boule, these of the Algonkin were generally less deep amidships than the general run of eastern canoes.

Building procedure was as follows: The gunwales were made, bent, and the ends fastened, but instead of being mortised and fitted with thwarts, they were spread by temporary crosspieces, or "spalls," made of a splint, or plank-on-edge, with the lower edge notched in two places to take the gunwale members. Sometimes the spalls were lashed, pegged or nailed to the gunwales as well. The stakes were set along the building frame and these were generally driven sloping, so that their heads stood outboard of the points. They were then pulled and laid aside, the building frame was removed, and the bark cover placed on the building bed. After the building frame has been reset in its original position and the bark cover turned up along the sides, the stakes were again driven in their holes. The cover was then pieced out with side panels as necessary and gored, and longitudinal strips of wood were set in place by means of the clamp pieces, about as in Malecite construction. The gunwales were then placed on the posts, which had been set to the required sheer, and the bark trimmed and fitted to them. The old method was to lash the bark to the main gunwale members and to peg on the outwales at intervals of about a foot. In earlier times most builders inserted along the gunwales an extra reinforcing strip of bark extending a little below the outwales, as in the St. Francis canoes, but in the nailed-and-tacked bark canoes built during the decadent period this was sometimes omitted.

Figure 109

Hybrid Algonkin Canoes: Eastern 2½ fathom (above) and northeastern 2-fathom adaptation, with sketches of stems used in each.

Mortises for the thwarts were next cut and the middle thwart was forced into place, after the spall there had been removed. This required that the gunwales be spread slightly, thus increasing the amount of sheer somewhat. Much judgment was needed to do this correctly. The increase in the sheer lifted the ends slightly and put some rocker in the bottom toward the ends. The building frame was lifted out before the rest of the thwarts were placed; usually it was taken apart in the process. In forming the ends of the bark cover, the two sides were held together by a clothespin-like device made of two short, flat sticks lashed together.

Increasing the beam at the gunwales by fitting the thwarts after the bark cover had been secured to the gunwales not only increased the sheer but decreased the depth of the canoe amidships as established by the posts placed under the gunwales in setting up. In order to retain the required sheer and the desired depth of side, the gunwales had been sheered up at the ends while being shaped, and had also been treated with hot water and hogged upward amidships by being staked out to dry into shape. The spreading of the gunwales tended to lift the ends of the bottom line, a condition that was controlled in two ways: the usual one apparently was to employ, in combination with a level bed, a building frame slightly wider than was desired for the finished bottom; the second way was to follow Malecite procedure and elevate slightly the middle of the building bed while employing a building frame the width of the finished bottom. The Algonkin procedure of spreading the gunwales during construction was that employed in the northwest and in the building of the fur-trade canoes, as will be seen. The amount of spread to be given the gunwales also affected the angle, or slope, at which the side stakes were driven on the building bed. Even so, some builders who spread the gunwales a good deal would set the stakes almost vertically, instead of at a slant, as this made sewing the side panels easier, particularly in large canoes and in canoes whose covers were made up of a large number of small pieces of bark.

Figure 110

Algonkin, 2-Fathom Hunter's Canoe, without headboards. Details of building frame, stakes or posts, gauge, and stem.

The gunwales of the Algonkin canoes were made up of three members—main gunwales, outwales, and caps. The main gunwales, usually of cedar, were rectangular in cross section and bent on the flat. The lower outboard corner was bevelled off to take the rib ends, as in the Malecite canoes. The gunwales were rather light ranging in the examples found from about 1 inch square to 1 by 1⅝ inches, the ends being tapered to a lesser size. The outwales were light battens, rectangular in cross-section, about as deep as the main gunwales and about two-thirds their thickness or less; they tapered in depth toward the ends to ⅜ or ½ inch in order to follow the sheer, while the thickness might be constant or only slightly reduced. The caps, which were pegged to the gunwales, were also light and were about equal to the combined width of the main gunwales and outwales and had a depth of about ⅜ to ½ inch amidships. At the ends they were tapered in both width and depth, becoming ½ inch wide and ⅜ inch deep. The amount of taper in the ends of the gunwale members depended upon the form of sheer; the Algonkin practice in the old form of canoe was to sheer the outwales and caps to the top of the stem, while the gunwales sheered less and met the sides of the stem piece at a lower point, as in the drawing (p. [116]). In the wabinaki chiman, however, the gunwales and other members, as a rule, all followed the sheer of the ends of the canoe.

Figure 111

Algonkin Canoe, Old Type.

The Algonkins used inside stem-pieces in both models, but the stem-piece of the old high-ended canoe was quite different from that of the wabinaki chiman, for it was built to give a profile in which the top of the high stem ended in a line straight across to the sheer. The piece consisted of a crooked stick, without lamination, worked out of a thin board, ⅜ to ½ inch thick. It was shaped to the desired profile inside and out, and was slightly sharpened, or sometimes rabbeted and sharpened, toward the outboard face. The headboard was mounted on this stem-piece by means of the usual notch but was not bellied; instead it stood approximately vertical and a short strut was tenoned into both the headboard and the inside face of the stem at a point about half the height of the stem. Sometimes two struts were used, side by side, with the outboard ends lashed at the sides of the stem. Thus the stem-pieces and headboards were placed as a single unit, not independently as in eastern canoes. The gunwale ends were lashed to the sides of the stem-piece, between the strut and the stem-head, at a height determined by the sheering of the main gunwale members. The outwales and caps did not touch the stem-piece, ending with a nearly vertical upward sweep, a few inches inboard. The ends of the outwales and caps were always higher than the top of the stem-piece so that, when the canoe was turned upside down, the bark cover over the stem-head was kept off the ground and thus preserved from damage. The top of the stem-piece was held rigid not only by the strut to the headboard but also by the ends of the main gunwale members lashed to it a little higher up. The headboard was in the form of a rounded V that was widest at midheight, at the gunwales, which were let into its sides.

When the stem-head was rounded in the style of the fur-trade canoe, the stem-piece except near the heel was split into very thin laminations about ¹⁄₁₆ inch, or a little more, thick. The carefully selected cedar of which these were made was treated with boiling water, then bent to profile; the head was sharply bent over and down, inside the stem, then sharply up again so the end stood at about right angles to the face of the stem at midheight. The headboard was mounted as previously described, except that the end of the stem-piece was inserted into a hole in the headboard just above the strut. The laminations of the stem-piece were wrapped in the normal manner and the lashing was often brought around the strut as well, up against the outboard face of the headboard. The whole structure was thus made rigid and very strong. As in the other form, the main gunwale members did not follow the sheer near the ends of canoe but were secured at a point lower down on the sides of the stem-piece. In the round-head form, however, the outwale and cap ends were fastened on the after face of the stem-head where the laminations were curved downward as illustrated in the drawing (p. [116]).

The headboards for both models were thicker than those in the eastern canoes; this aided in holding the stem line in form. Tension on the bark cover was obtained by making the cover V-formed toward the ends and then spreading the sides of the V with the headboard, thus bringing pressure on the strakes of the sheathing and forcing the sides outward in a slight curve.

The stem-pieces of the wabinaki chiman were either cut out of a thin board or laminated. In the straight-stem form, only the forefoot part was laminated, and no headboard was used. Ordinarily, however, the rigid headboard with a single strut was used. The head of the stem-piece was carried through the rail caps and showed above them; the ends of the caps and main gunwales were notched to permit this, but neither these nor the cap extended outboard of the face of the stem.

Figure 112

Algonkin "Wabinaki Chiman."

The bark cover was lashed to the gunwales with group lashings in which the thong was carried from group to group by a long stitch outside the cover, under the outwale. The turns in each group were passed through five or six holes in the cover and reinforcing piece, two turns of the thong going through each hole. The connecting stitch between groups, which were usually about 1½ inches apart, usually passed from the last hole in a group to the second hole in the next. Some builders laid a wooden measuring stick along the gunwales to space the lashings; this was perhaps the practice of many tribal groups.

The lashing of the ends of the cover was passed through the stem pieces; when the latter were not laminated, holes through the soft, thin cedar were made by a sharp awl and an in-and-out or harness stitch was quite commonly used. On laminated stem pieces the form of lashing varied; in the wabinaki chiman it was commonly some combination of spiral and crossed turns; in the old form of high-ended canoe multiple turns through a single hole (usually at the top of the stem-head) were also used in combination with closely spaced long-and-short turns in triangular groups near the top of the stem profile. Below, in the forefoot, spiral or crossed stitches were used. The ends of the outwales were lashed together with a close wrapping of turns in contact where they turned upward sharply, and the caps were secured there by two or more group lashings. The head of the headboard was lashed to each gunwale by passing the thong through holes each side of the headboard; these lashings were in a long group and were passed around gunwale and outwale before the caps were in place. With plank stem-pieces the ends of the bark cover were slightly inboard of the cutwater line, sometimes protected by a rabbet.

The side panels were sewn on with in-and-out stitches, back stitches, or a double line of either. The gores were sewn spirally in the usual manner or were stitched with a closely spaced lacing.

Some of the old Algonkin canoes examined had what appeared to be a wulegessis just outboard of the headboards. No marking was found on these and they were too far aft to protect the ends of the gunwales. The bark was carried across the gunwales, under the caps, and hung down a little below the outwales. On top, it reached from the headboard out to the lashings of the outwales, forming between the headboards and the lashings a short deck that may have been intended to keep dirt and water out of the ends of the canoe. Sometimes a modern wabinaki chiman has a wulegessis, copying the Eastern practice but without markings.

Figure 113

Algonkin Canoe Decorations by Tommy Sersin (or Serzia), Golden Lake, Ont., showing four sides of stems of one canoe. Indian shown has the eastern headdress rather than that of the Plains Indian. Moose, bear, beaver, and goose are shown. (Sketches by Adney.)

The thwarts were of various designs; a common one had parallel sides in plan. The old canoes had thwarts much like those of the Têtes de Boule. The end lashings of these were usually passed through three holes in the thwart ends, but some had only two holes.

Sheathing was laid somewhat as in the Têtes-de-Boule canoe, with overlapping edges and butts. The end sheathing was short and was laid first; the centerline strake was parallel-sided to a point near the sharp end of the canoe. The strakes on each side of it were tapered and were laid with their wide ends toward the middle of the canoe and with the sides and narrow end lapped. In the middle of the canoe the strakes were parallel-sided and their butts were on top of those of the strakes in the end of the canoe. The sheathing was carried up to within about three inches of the gunwales. The edges were not thinned or feathered as much as were those in the Têtes de Boule canoe.

Ribs were of cedar from 2 to 3 inches wide, closely spaced and, as usual, without taper until near the ends, which were formed with a narrow chisel edge as in the Têtes-de-Boule canoe. The ribs were first roughly bent, using the building frame as a general guide for length, in order to obtain a somewhat dish-shaped cross section; by this means the width of the bottom could be established to the builder's satisfaction.

The foregoing description of building methods and construction is based largely upon what is known of the old canoes. In later times the Algonkin copied the eastern canoes and their procedure altered. Not only did they copy extensively the appearance of the St. Francis and Malecite canoes, but they built some canoes much like those of the Têtes de Boule and Ojibway. As a result, it has become difficult to determine what their tribal practices were.

Their paddles were of the same design as those of the Têtes de Boule, round-pointed and with the blade parallel-sided for most of its length. In portaging, the Algonkin, like many forest Indians, placed a pair of paddles a foot or so apart fore-and-aft over the middle thwart and those on each side of it. These were lashed in place with the ends of a band of hide or the inner bark of a tree like the basswood or elm. This band had been first passed around the ends of the middle thwart, outside the shoulders, and hitched with ends long enough to secure the paddles in place. The shoulder on the middle, thwart, a few inches inside the gunwales, was placed there for just this purpose, not as a mere decoration, so that the line could not slide in along the thwart. The canoe was then lifted and turned over by raising one end, or by lifting the whole canoe, and was placed on the carrier's shoulders, so that the paddle handles were on his shoulders. This brought the middle thwart to just behind the carrier's head. The loop of the bark or hide cord was then placed around the forehead of the carrier in order to keep the canoe from slipping backward. In this fashion one man could carry a canoe for miles if the canoe were small—and all woods, or portage, canoes were small and light. The headband was known to white men as a "tump line." The Indians used it to carry not only canoes but other heavy or awkward loads (see p. [25]).

There is no certainty about the decorations of Algonkin canoes. Some of the older Indians claimed that the old form of canoe was often decorated with figures formed by scraping the winter bark; usually these depicted the game the owner hunted. Five-pointed stars, fish, and circular forms are known to have been used on the wabinaki chiman, but it is not known whether these were really Algonkin decorations or merely something that had been copied "because it looked good."

The Algonkin called the large fur canoes nabiska, a name which the Têtes de Boule rendered as rabeska. The word may be a corruption of the Cree word for "strong." At any rate, the name rabeska (sometimes pronounced ra-bas-ha), rather than the French maître canot, was long applied by white men in the fur trade to the large canoes built in the Ottawa River Valley for their business. In late years the rabeska was a "large" 2½-fathom high-ended birch-bark canoe, but originally it meant a fur-trade canoe, with the characteristic ends, of from 3 fathoms upward in length.

Ojibway

The Indian bands that were called "Outaouais" by the early French do not appear to have been an independent tribe, as has been mentioned, but were largely made up of Ojibway from the Great Lakes region. Perhaps some Têtes de Boule were among these bands before these people were given their nickname. The Ojibway were a powerful tribal group, made up of far-ranging bands, located all around Lake Superior and to the northwest as far as Lake Winnipeg. They had been in the process of taking over the western end of Lake Superior when the earliest French explorers reached that area; they pushed the Sioux from these forest lands into the plains area, joining with the western Cree in this movement. In the process they seem to have absorbed both some Sioux and some Cree bands. Within the Ojibway tribal group, later called Chippewa or Chippeway by the English and Americans, the bands had local names, or were given nicknames, such as the Menominee, Saltreaux, Pillagers, etc. All the important bands within the tribal group were expert canoemen and builders. As far as can be discovered now, the Ojibway added to their own tribal types the models of canoes they encountered in their expansion westward. It has long been true that the Ojibway canoe can be one of at least three forms, depending upon which area of their territory is being discussed.

What is believed to be their old tribal form was a high-ended canoe in all respects very much like the high-ended Algonkin type. This was the model used by the Lake Nipigon Ojibway, north of Lake Superior in Ontario, and by those of the same tribe that once lived near Saginaw, Michigan, as well as by the Menominee of Wisconsin. At the late period, from the middle of the 19th century onward, for which information was available or in which investigation was possible, it appears that the Ojibway canoes of this high-ended model were built in larger sizes than contemporary Algonkin canoes of like design. The Ojibway canoes had the same end structure as these; the early examples found had "chin" in the end profiles and the tumble-home of the stem was straight, or nearly so, between the large curve of the forefoot and the very short hard curve at the stem head. The Ojibway used the same inner stem-piece, laminated and brought downward abaft the stem-head and then inboard so that the end fitted into a slot in the headboard a little above its midheight, at which point was fitted a strut from the headboard to the back of the stem-piece. The midsection of the Ojibway canoe was very much like that of the Algonkin; it had a narrow bottom somewhat rounded athwartships, a well-rounded bilge, and flaring topsides.

A small Ojibway portage canoe built in the middle of the 19th century had an end profile somewhat different from that described above; the ends were well rounded and had a heavy chin, the stem was carried into the tumble-home with a full rounded curve all the way to the stem-head, where the stem piece was bent in and downward very sharply and then inboard sharply again, so that the end pierced the vertical headboard at sheer height. The S-curve was so located that the main gunwales could be lashed to the stem piece at the point where they paralleled it well below the stem head. In these canoes the Ojibway followed Algonkin practice in ending the gunwales; there was, therefore, no strut. Where this canoe was built is uncertain.

Figure 114

Ojibway 2-Fathom Hunter's Canoe, used by the eastern tribal groups. Probably the ancient model.

Figure 115

Examples of the Old Model Ojibway 3-Fathom rice-harvesting canoe (above), and 2-fathom hunter's canoe, showing the easy paddling form used.

Figure 116

Ojibway 3-Fathom Freight Canoe From Lake Timagami, apparently a hybrid based on canvas canoes.

Figure 117

The Old Form of Ojibway 2½-Fathom Canoe of the eastern groups (above), and the long-nose Cree-Ojibway canoe of the western groups.

At Lake Timagami, north of Georgian Bay in Ontario, the Ojibway used a low-ended canoe with a remarkably straight tumble-home stem profile; the forefoot had a very short radius ending at the bottom line with a knuckle, and the stem-head stood slightly above the gunwale caps. The stem-piece was made from a thin plank cut to profile; thus no lamination was necessary. The headboard stood straight, falling inboard slightly at the head. The midsection was dish-shaped, with a flat bottom athwartships and strongly flaring sides, the turn of the bilge being rather abrupt. The ends were strongly V-shaped in cross-section; a number of the frames there being "broken" at the centerline of the bottom. A canoe of this design was seen by Adney at North Bay, Ontario, in 1925, indicating that the design may have been used in some degree outside the Lake area in later years.

The most common Ojibway model used to the northwest and west of Lake Superior was the so-called "long-nose" form, a rather straight-sheered canoe. The bottom, near the ends, had a slight rocker, and the sheer turned up very sharply there, becoming almost perpendicular at the extremities, yet the ends were not proportionally very high. The end-profile came up from the bottom very full and round, then fell sharply inboard in a slightly rounded sweep to join the upturned sheer well inboard. The midsection was somewhat dish-shaped, but with well-rounded bilges, so that the flare of the topsides was rounded and not very apparent to the casual observer. The end section developed into a tumble-home form, so that a section through the top of the headboard was rather oval. As a result, these canoes appeared rather clumsy and unfair in their lines, but this apparently did not harm their paddling qualities or seaworthiness.

Figure 118

Eastern Ojibway Canoe, Old Form. (Canadian Pacific Railway photo.)

Figure 119

Ojibway Long-Nose Canoe, Rainy Lake District.

These canoes had narrow headboards that were sharply bellied, somewhat like those in the crooked canoes, and the belly was sufficient to allow the heel of the end-board to pass under the bottom sheathing and inside the bark cover so that two end ribs served to hold the heel in place. The inside stem-piece was often no more than a light stick or rod bent to profile, with the head split and brought over the gunwale ends and down inside, between them. Each half of the split was then lashed to its neighboring gunwale member. A strip of bark was often placed over the end of the bark cover and carried down the face of the stem, under the sewing. The rail caps were then brought up over the tops of the gunwales and overlapped the top portion of the stem piece. The heel of the stem-piece was bevelled off on the inboard side so that it could be wedged under the headboard, inside the bark cover. These headboards, it should be noted, were no more than a thin, narrow batten, and in some canoes the head of this batten was lashed under the gunwale ends instead of coming up between them inboard, as usual. A variation in the fitting of the stem head was found in a canoe at Long Lake, Ontario; the stem head, instead of being split, was lashed between the gunwale ends and thus was brought inboard level with the top of the gunwales.

Figure 120

Small Ojibway Canoes of the Two Tribal Forms showing (above) early trend toward the long nose form, and the final Ojibway-Cree hybrid form combining flaring sides amidships with tumble-home sections at ends.

The cross section of the main gunwales was round or nearly so in nearly all long-nose canoes, and often a gunwale cap was fitted. The bark cover was secured to the gunwales by a continuous lashing, but in at least one example, from Minnesota, the gunwale wrappings were in groups over an outwale after the regular fashion to the eastward. The ends of the thwarts were wedge-or chisel-shaped and instead of being tenoned were forced into splits in the round gunwales. Many canoes had bark covers at the gunwale ends and vestiges of the wulegessis were to be seen.

All Ojibway canoes were built with a building frame, the bed being slightly higher at midlength than at the ends. The stakes were driven nearly perpendicular, instead of with heads slanted outward. It is apparent from observed examples that some canoes were built by the same procedure as the Algonkin, but that not all the long-nose canoes were built by spreading the gunwales; some were built using the methods of the St. Francis.

Figure 121

Ojibway Canoe Building, Lac Seul, 1918.

(See pp. [170]-171 for more photos of Ojibway canoe building.)

Preparing a building site or bed; building frame in place.

Bark set up; bark staked out on building bed.

Bark cover being sewn on building bed.

Gunwales being lashed.

Securing gunwales.

Pitch being applied to seams.

Figure 122

Long Lake Ojibway Long-Nose Canoe. (Canadian Geological Survey photo.)

The lashing in the high-ended Ojibway canoes was about the same as that in the Algonkin canoes, but in the long-nose type the workmanship was often coarse. On many of the latter the stems were lashed by use of small groups in which two turns were taken through each of two closely spaced holes in the bark and the connection between the groups was made by a long spiral around the outside of the stem. This pattern was carried down from the stem-head to about the level of the midship sheer height; from there down around the forefoot the lashing consisted of a simple spiral. Another style was to use widely spaced groups made up of two or three turns through a pair of facing holes in the bark, one on each side and inboard of the stem. The turn went around the stem, and the last connected with the next pair of holes below. A few canoes of this style used closely spaced wrapping, as in the high-ended canoes.

The long-nose Ojibway canoe is surprisingly primitive by comparison with the graceful and well-finished high-ended model built after the Algonkin style. Adney believed that the long-nose type originated with the Sioux Dakotas, before the combined Ojibway and Cree movement forced them out of the forest lands to the west of Lake Superior. He considered it possible that both the Ojibway and Cree adapted the Dakota model, modifying it somewhat to their methods of construction. It is true that the western Cree built a long-nose canoe, but it had less chin than the Ojibway model. On the other hand, the Ojibway prebent ribs in pairs like the eastern Cree, and used spreaders in the end ribs while drying them, in exactly the same manner. A picture taken in 1916 shows the gunwales of a Cree long-nose canoe being set; it was laid on the ground and weighted along the midlength by stones laid on boards placed across the longitudinals. The ends had been sheered up and were supported at each end by a thong made fast to the gunwale end and then brought over a post, or strut, a few feet inboard and made fast to the middle thwart.

It is unnecessary to detail the construction of the Ojibway canoes, as they employed a building-frame, as the drawings on pages [123] to 127 show plainly enough the pertinent details of fitting and construction. It is important to observe that the wide variation in model and in construction details of the Ojibway canoes produced a variety of building procedures that in the main were like those of the Algonkin and Cree. Hence the older tribal method of construction cannot now be stated with any accuracy.

The paddle forms used by the Ojibway groups varied somewhat. Most were made with parallel-sided blades and oval tips. The hand grip at the top of the handle was rectangular and was large in comparison to the grip of the eastern Cree paddles. A few variations have been noticed; the blade of one was widest at the top, the tip was almost squared off, and the upper hand grip was much as in the factory paddle of today. This paddle, from an unknown locality, was used in 1849.

As in the case of the Algonkin, the eastern Ojibway built fur-trade canoes under supervision. Though these canoes differed somewhat from those built by the Algonkins, it is now impossible to say whether or not there was any real relationship between them and the small, high-ended "old-form" canoe. Likewise, the Ojibway built a version of the wabinaki chiman which seems to have influenced some types of their own, such as, for instance, the straight-stem Lake Temagami canoe.

Figure 123

Nineteen-Foot Ojibway Canoe with thirteen Indians aboard (1913).

Western Cree

The western portion of the great Cree tribe appear to have occupied the western shore of James Bay and to have moved gradually northwestward in historical times. Their territory included the northern portion of Ontario and northern Manitoba north of Lake Winnipeg, and as early as 1800 they had entered northwestern Alberta. The line of division between the canoes of the eastern and western Cree cannot be strictly determined, but it is roughly the Missinaibi River, which, with the Abitibi River, empties into the head of James Bay at the old post of Moose Factory. The southern range of the Cree model was only a little way south of the head of James Bay, irregularly westward in line with Lake St. Joseph to Lake Winnipeg. To the west, the Cree type of canoe gradually spread until it met the canoe forms of the Athabascan in the Northwest Territories, in the vicinity of Lake Athabaska in northwestern Saskatchewan.

The canoes of the western Cree, as has been noted, strongly resembled the long-nose Ojibway model except that they had less pronounced chin. But unlike those of the eastern Cree, their canoes employed an inside stem-piece that was sometimes a laminated piece and sometimes a piece of spruce root. The stem head was commonly bent sharply and secured between the gunwale ends at the point where the two longitudinals were fastened together, much as in some Ojibway long-nose canoes. The Cree canoe had basically the same dish-shaped midsection, but it had very full, round bilges and the flare was so curved in the topside that it was even less apparent than in the Ojibway model. The shorter chin of the Cree canoe also made tumble-home in the end sections unnecessary, and cross section near the headboards was given the form of a slightly rounded U.

The bottom had very little rocker at the ends, being straight for practically the whole length. The stem-piece if laminated (often in only two or three laminations) came up from the bottom in a fair round forefoot and then tumbled in by a gentle curve to the stem-head, where it was bent sharply to pass down between the gunwale ends as previously noted. But if the stem-piece was of spruce root, the profile was often somewhat irregular and the chin was more pronounced. In a common style the stem came fair out of the bottom in a quick hard curve, then curved outward slightly until the height of the least freeboard amidships was reached, at which height another hard turn began the tumble-home in a gentle sweep to the stem-head, where there was a very hard turn downward. The stem-head was often split, as in some Ojibway canoes, so that it came over the joined ends of the main gunwales and the two halves were then lashed to the inside faces of the gunwales.

Birch bark was often poor or scarce in the territory of the western Cree, as in that of their eastern brothers. As a substitute, they employed spruce bark and in general seem to have achieved better results, for their spruce-bark canoes had a neater appearance. If the canoe was built when or where root material was difficult to obtain, the western Cree used rawhide for sewing the bark cover. When the stems were lashed with rawhide, a stem-band of bark under the lashing was common.

The gunwales were round in cross section and were often spliced amidships. The bark cover was lashed to these with a continuous lashing, no caps or outwales being employed. As in the Ojibway long-nose canoe, the headboards were very narrow and much bellied. These canoes were built with four or five thwarts; the 4-thwart type was used for gathering wild rice, as was the Ojibway type, while the 5-thwart canoe was the portage model. The thwarts were sometimes mortised into the gunwales, but some builders made the thwart ends chisel-pointed and drove them into short splits in the gunwales before lashing them, one or two holes being drilled in the thwart ends to take the lashing thongs. When the thwarts were tenoned into the gunwales, the builders of course made the inside of the gunwales flat.

When spruce bark was employed, its greater stiffness made it possible to space the ribs as much as 10 inches on centers, but with birch the spacing was about 1 inch, edge to edge. The sheathing was in short splints and the inside of the canoe was "shingled" or covered irregularly without regard to lining off the strakes, a practice sometimes observed in Ojibway long-nose canoes. The much-bellied and narrow headboards were fitted as in the long-nose canoe, and the heel was secured under a piece of sheathing and held by it and the first two ribs.

Western Cree canoes were built with a building frame, and the bed was raised in the middle. The sewing varied. The ends were lashed with combinations of close-wrapped turns, crossed turns, grouped, and spiral turns; the lashing commonly went around the inside stem piece rather than through it. Side panels were sewn with in-and-out stitches or back stitches, and the gores with the usual spiral. Gumming as a rule was done with clear spruce gum tempered by repeated meltings.

Figure 124

Western Cree 2½-Fathom Canoe, Winisk River District, northwest of James Bay. Built of either birch or spruce bark. Inside root stem piece, round gunwales, and much-bellied headboard are typical.

The woodwork varied with the building site; some builders could use much cedar, but spruce was most common and the thwarts were usually of birch. When spruce bark was used it was never employed in a single large sheet, since it would have been impossible to mold it to the required shape. Hence the bark cover was pieced up, whether birch or spruce, as an aid in molding the form. Before the spruce bark was sewed and gummed, the edges of the pieces had to be thinned to make a neat joint. Furthermore, in the continuous lashing it was desirable to take two or three turns through one hole in the bark cover to avoid weakening the material with closely spaced holes.

The western Cree paddles had parallel-sided blades with rounded tips; the handle sometimes had a ball-shaped top grip and sometimes it was pole-ended. The blade did not have a ridge on its face near the handle. Old Cree paddles were often decorated with red pigment bands, markings in the shape of crosses, squares in series, and dots on the blades; the top grip might also be painted.

Many tribal groups in the western portion of the area have been mentioned—Teton, Sioux, Assiniboine, Illinois, Huron, and many others—but no record of their canoe forms has survived and the assigning of any model to them is pure speculation. The fur trade alone brought about a period of tribal movement among the Indians long enough to erase many tribal distinctions in canoes and to cause types to move great distances.

Figure 125

An Old 6-Fathom Fur-Trade Canoe, or "rabeska," used on the Montreal-Great Lakes run. Also called the Iroquois canoe, it approximates the canoes built for the French, at the Trois Rivières, Que., factory and is of the style used by the North West and Hudson's Bay Companies.

Fur-Trade Canoes

Of all birch-bark canoe forms, the most famous were the canots du maître, or maître canots (also called north canoes, great canoes, or rabeskas), of the great fur companies of Canada. These large canoes were developed early, as we have seen in the French colonial records, and remained a vital part of the fur trade until well toward the very end of the 19th century—two hundred years of use and development at the very least. A comprehensive history of the Canadian and American fur trade is yet to be written; when one appears it will show that the fur trade could not have existed on a large scale without the great maître canot of birch bark. It will also have to show that the early exploration of the north country was largely made possible by this carrier. In fact, the great canoes of the Canadian fur trade must be looked upon as the national watercraft type, historically, of Canada and far more representative of the great years of national expansion than the wagon, truck, locomotive, or steamship.

Little has survived concerning the form and construction of the early French-colonial fur-trade canoes. Circumstantial evidence leads to the conclusion that the model was a development, an enlargement perhaps, of the Algonkin form of high-ended canoe as described on pages [113] to 116. The early French came into contact with these tribesmen before they met the Great Lakes Ojibway, the other builders of the high-ended model. It is known that the Indians first supplied large canoes to the French governmental and church authorities and that when this source of canoes proved insufficient, the canoe factory at Trois Rivières was set up and a standard size (probably a standard model as well) came into existence. As the fur trade expanded, large canoes may well have been built elsewhere by the early French; we know at least that building spread westward and northward after Canada became a British possession.

In the rise of the great canoe of the fur trade, the basic model was no doubt maintained through the method of training its builders. The first French engaged in bark-canoe building learned the techniques, let us say, from the original Indian builders, the Algonkin. As building moved westward, the first men sent to the new posts to build canoes apparently came from the French-operated canoe factory. It would be reasonable to expect that as building increased in the west, local modifications would be patterned on canoes from around the building post, but that the basic model would remain. This may account for the departures from the true Ojibway-Algonkin canoes seen in the maître canots.

Figure 126

Inboard Profile of a 6-Fathom Fur-Trade Canoe, and details of construction, fitting, and decoration.

Figure 127

Small 3-Fathom North Canoe of the Têtes de Boule model. Built in the 19th century for fast travel, this Hudson's Bay Company canoe was also called nadowé chiman, or Iroquois canoe.

In model, all the fur-trade canoes had narrow bottoms, flaring topsides, and sharp ends. The flaring sides were rather straight in section and the bottom nearly flat athwartships. The bottom had a moderate rocker very close to the ends. In nearly all of these canoes, the main gunwales were sheered up only slightly at the ends and were secured to the sides of the inner stem-piece; the outwales and caps, however, were strongly sheered up to the top of the stem. The curvature and form of the ends, in later years at least, varied with the place of building.

After the English took control of Canada and the fur trade, a large number of Iroquois removed into Quebec and were employed by the English fur traders as canoemen and as canoe builders. Though the aboriginal Iroquois were not birch-bark canoe builders, they apparently became so after they reached Canada, for the fur-trade canoes built on the Ottawa River and tributaries by the Algonkins and their neighbors became known after 1820 as nadowé chiman or adowe chiman, names which mean Iroquois canoe. These "Iroquois canoes," however, were not a standard form. Those built by the Algonkin had relatively upright stem profiles, giving them a rather long bottom, and the outwales and caps stood almost vertical at the stem-heads; in contrast, the "Iroquois canoes" built by the Têtes de Boule had a proportionally shorter bottom than those of the Algonkin, because the end profiles were cut under more at the forefoot. Also, the outwales and caps of the Têtes de Boule canoes were not sheered quite as much as were those of the Algonkin.

It is supposed that the Têtes de Boule were taught to build this model by Iroquois, who had replaced the French builders subsequent to the closing of the canoe factory at Trois Rivières, sometime about 1820. After the English took possession of Canada in 1763, the old canoe factory had been maintained by the Montreal traders (the "North West Company"), and it was not until these traders were absorbed by the Hudson's Bay Company that canoe manufacture at Trois Rivières finally came to a halt, although it is probable that the production of canoes there had become limited by shortages of bark and other suitable materials. However, the North West Company had built the large trading canoes elsewhere, for many of its posts had found it necessary to construct canoes locally, and when the Hudson's Bay Company finally took over the fur trade it continued the policy of building the canoes at various posts where material and builders could be found. This policy appears to have produced in the fur-trade canoe model a third variant in which the high ends were much rounded at the stem head; this was the form built by the Ojibway and Cree (see p. [139]). It must be noted, however, that the variation in the three forms of fur-trade canoe was expressed almost entirely in the form and framing of the ends; the lines were all about the same, though small variations in sheer, rocker, and midsection must have existed.

Figure 128

Models of Fur-Trade Canoes, top to bottom: 2½-fathom Ottawa River Algonkin canoe, Hudson's Bay Company express canoe, 3½-fathom Têtes de Boule "Iroquois" canoe, 3¾-fathom Lake Timagami canoe, 5-fathom fur-trade canoe of early type, and 5-fathom Hudson's Bay Company canoe built in northwestern Quebec Province.

Although no regulations appear to have been set up by the fur companies to govern the size, model, construction or finish of these canoes, custom and the requirements of usage appear to have been satisfactory guides, having been established by practical experience. As a result, the length of canoes varied and the classification by "fathoms" or feet must be accepted as no more than approximate.

The form of the canoe was determined by the use to which it was to be put, in trade or in travel. Fur-trade accounts often mention the "light canoe," or canot léger, often misspelled in various ways in early English accounts, and this class of canoe was always mentioned where speed was necessary. Commonly, the light canoe was merely a trade canoe lightly burdened. Due to the narrow bottom of these canoes, they became long and narrow on the waterline when not heavily loaded and so could be paddled very rapidly. It is true, however, that some "express canoes" were built for fast paddling. These were merely the common trade models with less beam than usual at gunwale and across the bottom. Some posts made a specialty of building such canoes, often handsomely painted, for the use of officials of the company, or of the church or government, during "inspection" trips. Not all of the highly finished canoes were of the narrow form, however, as some were built wide for capacity rather than for high speed.

Figure 129

"Fur-Trade Maître Canot With Passengers." From an oil painting by Hopkins (Public Archives of Canada photo).

The fur traders used not only the so-called fur-trade canoes, of course, but they employed various Indian types when small canoes were required. And in the construction of the high-ended fur-trade models, they did not limit themselves to canoes of relatively great length. Each "canoe road" forming the main lines of travel in the old fur-trade had requirements that affected the size of the canoes employed on it. The largest size of fur-trade canoe, the standard 5½-fathom (bottom length), was employed only on the Montreal-Great Lakes route, in the days before this run was taken over by bateaux, schooners, sloops, and later, by steamers. At the western end of this route, a smaller 4-or 4½-fathom canoe came into use. The latter was used on the long run into the northwest. Even smaller canoes were often employed by the northern posts; the 3-or 3½-fathom sizes were popular where the canoe routes were very difficult to operate. For use on some of the large northern lakes, the large canoes of the Montreal-Great Lakes run were introduced. Fur coming east from the Athabasca might thus be transported in canoes of varying size along the way.

In judging the size of the canoe mentioned in a fur-trader's journal, it is often very difficult to be certain whether the measurement he is employing is bottom or gunwale length. In the largest canoes, however, the 5½-fathom bottom-length was the 6-fathom gunwale length, and the use of either usually, but not always, indicates the method of measurement. This is not the case in the small canoe however, where the matter must too often be left to guesswork. To give the reader a more precise idea of the sizes of the canoes last employed in the fur trade, the following will serve. The maître canot of the Montreal-Great Lakes run was commonly about 36 feet overall, or about 32 feet 9 inches over the gunwales, and a little over 32 feet on the bottom. The beam at gunwale was roughly 66 inches (inside the gunwales) or about 68-70 inches extreme beam. The width of the building frame that formed the bottom would be somewhere around 42 inches. The depth amidships, from bottom to top of gunwale might be approximately 30-32 inches and the height of the stems roughly 54 inches. These dimensions might be best described as average, since canoes with gunwale length given as 6 fathoms were built a number of inches wider or narrower, and deeper or shallower. The earlier fur-trade canoes of the French and of the North West Company, for example, were apparently narrower than the above.

Figure 130

"Bivouac in Expedition in Hudson's Bay Canoe." From an oil painting by Hopkins (Public Archives of Canada photo).

Figure 131

Ojibway 3-Fathom Fur-Trade Canoe, a cargo-carrying type, marked by cut-under end profiles, that was built as late as 1894.

Figure 132

This Type of 5-Fathom Fur-Trade Canoe was built at L. A. Christopherson's Hudson's Bay Company posts at Grand Lake Victoria, Lake Barrière, and Lake Abitibi. Called the Ottawa River canoe by fur-traders, it was used for fast travel and shows the upright stems of the northwest Quebec Algonkin.

The 5-fathom size that replaced the larger canoe at the close of the bark-canoe period was about 31 feet long over the gunwales or 30 feet 8 inches in a straight line from tip of upturned rail cap at one stem to the other. The beam inside the gunwales was 60 inches. The width of the building frame would be between 40 and 45 inches, and the frame when formed would be about 26 feet 8 inches long. The depth of the canoe amidships, from bottom to top of gunwale, was approximate 30 inches and the height of the stems about 50 inches. The overall length of such a canoe was about 34 feet 4 inches. An express canoe of this size would be about 56 inches beam inside the gunwales or even somewhat less, and the depth amidships about 28 inches or a little less.

Figure 133

"Hudson's Bay Canoe Running the Rapids." From an oil painting by Hopkins (Public Archives of Canada photo).

A 4-fathom canoe measured 26 feet 8 inches over the tips of the upturned rail caps, and 29 feet 11 inches overall. The beam amidships was 57 inches inside the gunwales and the depth amidships to top of gunwales was 26 inches; the height of the stem was 53 inches.

A 3-fathom canoe was 19 feet 2 inches overall, 16 feet 8 inches over the ends of the gunwale caps, 42 inches beam amidships inside of gunwales, the depth of the canoe from bottom to top of gunwale amidships was 19 inches, and the height of the ends was 38 inches. The building frame for this canoe was 15 feet 8 inches long and 27 inches wide.

The canoes falling between the even-fathom measurements were often of about the same dimensions as the even-fathom size next below; a 3½-fathom canoe would have nearly the same breadth and depth as a 3-fathom; only the length was increased. The half-fathom rarely measured that—a canoe rated as 3½ fathom was actually only 20 feet 5 inches overall. One express canoe rated 3½ fathoms measured 20 feet 1 inch overall, 18 feet 3 inches over the gunwale caps, 44 inches beam inside gunwales amidships, and 21 inches deep, bottom to top of gunwale cap. The height of the ends was 39 inches. This example will serve to indicate how inexact the fathom classification really was. It should also be noted that the height of the ends varied a good deal in any given range of length, as this dimension was determined not by the length of the canoe but by the judgment and taste of the builder and his tribal form of end. Generally, however, small canoes had relatively higher ends than large canoes, in proportion to length, because, as will be remembered, one function of the end was to hold the upended canoe far enough off the ground to permit the user to seek shelter under it.