s the word
canoe comes from the name the West Indian natives gave their dug-outs
when questioned by Columbus. Nowadays the dug-out is generally used
for the dirtier work of 'longshore fisheries. It has lost its elegance
of form, and may be said to have reverted to a lower type. But this
reversion only serves the better to remind the twentieth century of
what all sorts of craft were like, not twenty, but two hundred,
centuries ago.

Secondly comes the Indian bark canoe, so justly famous in the history,
romance, and poetry of Canada. As in the case of other craft, its
form, size, and material have never been what we call 'standardized.'
Indians living outside the birch belt had to use inferior kinds of
bark. But the finest type was always made, and is still made, with
birch-bark. At least three kinds of tree are necessary for the best
results: the birch for the skin, the fir to caulk it with, and the
cedar for the sewing fibres and the frame. Only a single tool is
needed--a knife; and many a good canoe was built before the whites
brought metal knives from Europe. The Indian looks out for the {21}
biggest, soundest, and smoothest birch tree in his neighbourhood. He
prefers to strip it in the early summer, when the bark is supple with
the sap. Sap is as good for the bark as it is bad for the woodwork of
canoes and every other kind of craft. The soft inside of the bark is
always scraped as clean as a tanner scrapes a hide. If the Indian has
to build with dry or frozen bark he is careful to use hot water in
stripping the trunk, and he warms the bark again for working. Of
course, it is a great advantage to have as few strips as possible,
since every seam must first be sewn together by the squaws and then
gummed over. Occasionally a tree will be found big and suitable enough
to yield a single strip from which a seamless twenty-footer can be
built. But this is very rare.

The next thing is the frame--the gunwale, ribs, and cross-bars. Where
many canoes are building there is generally some sort of model round
which the ribs are bent. But a skilled Indian can dispense with any
model when making the ribs with every requisite degree of curve, from
the open ribs amidships, where the bottom is nearly flat, to the close
ribs at the ends, where the shape becomes halfway between the letter
'U' and {22} the letter 'V.' The gunwale is quite the most important
part of the canoe, as it holds all the other parts together a