Chapter VI: Introduction (5)

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.

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.

MICMAC ROUGH-WATER CANOE, BAY CHALEUR. (_Photo H. V. Henderson, West Bathurst, N.B._)]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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