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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.