including the bateau variation, was the bottom framing. It was
variously formed, according to tribal designation. The bottom framing
was made up of five or six longitudinal battens (four in one extinct
form of canoe). In the Yukon canoes six rectangular battens, all of
about the same cross section, were used with the narrow edge outboard.
These battens were held rigidly to form by thin crosspieces, or
splints, about ¼ by 1 inch forced athwartships through short splits
in the battens and pegged at the ends on the chine battens. The ends
of the four inner longitudinals were cut off on the snye to bear on
the inside face of the chine battens (in some instances they were cut
short of this). The chine ends were beveled together or lashed to the
sides of the stem-pieces. But in the Mackenzie form of canoe, the
longitudinals had no cross-members and, like the side battens, were
held in place by the pressure of the sprung ribs against the bark
cover. There was a difference in the form of midsection: in the Yukon
canoes the bottom athwartships was flat, but in the Mackenzie canoes
there had to be some rounding there. At least one exception existed in
the Mackenzie Basin, where the Loucheux canoe was formed on the Yukon
bottom. Another is to be seen in an old model of an extinct Athabascan
kayak form, which has only four longitudinals and chine members that
are very wide and rounded only on the outboard face. Between the chine
battens are two light rectangular battens. These are all held together
by a few splints and by lashings which pass around each individual
batten, thus serving both as lashing and spreader. This canoe has what
is apparently a very narrow bottom compared to known types. In some of
the Eskimo-built birch kayak forms, the separators between the bottom
battens were rectangular blocks held in place by a thong threaded
through two holes in each batten and block, to make a round turn, and
tied at one chine.
[Illustration: Figure 149
EXTINCT FORMS OF CANOES RECONSTRUCTED FROM OLD MODELS, showing
variations in the bottom frame construction and the effects of hull
form. Dimensions are estimated from the sizes of canoes in the area of
each example.]
In some bateau variations of the kayak-form canoe, the longitudinals
were secured by crosspieces, the ends of which were tenoned into the
inside faces of the chine battens. The three inner battens were below
the cross pieces. As a result, their bottoms were slightly below the
bottom of the chine members, so that in this canoe two chine lines show
through the bark cover on each side of the canoe.
From tribe to tribe the method of building the kayak-form canoe varied
somewhat, but generally the following procedure was employed. On a
smooth, level piece of ground the form of the canoe was staked out
in the usual manner, using a building frame, with the stakes sloped
outward at the top to match the desired flare of the sides.
Stem and stern posts were shaped of cedar by charring and scraping.
The gunwales were made in the same manner and were then lashed at the
desired heights on the stakes. Next, the bark cover was formed, usually
of two or more sheets sewn together. This was placed inside the stakes
and the building frame was forced down on it and weighted with stones.
The ends were then trimmed and the sides were gored, sewn, and trimmed
to fit the gunwales, to which the bark was laced. The stem and the
stern post were then placed and lashed to the gunwales and secured to
the bark by lashing, in some instances through holes in the posts. The
bark at this stage was usually quite dry and stiff and the gunwales
could be freed from the side stakes.
The bottom frame, assembled before other construction had started, was
hogged; the middle was placed on a log or block and the ends weighted.
Hot water was often applied to set the bottom frame.
Next, the bark cover was thoroughly wetted with boiling water to make
it pliable and elastic. The building frame and stones were now removed,
the bottom frame was substituted, and its ends fastened or engaged
to the heels of the stem and stern posts. The bottom frame was then
forced flat and held there by stones. This stretched the bottom bark
longitudinally, and increased the sheer slightly toward bow and stern.
The hogged bottom frame was known as a "sliding bottom" by some Indians.
The transverse frames, or ribs, had been prebent in the usual manner
before assembly began; a few of these were now put in place, the ends
being forced under the gunwales between their outer faces and the bark,
or into a groove on the underside of the gunwale. This stretched the
bark transversely and vertically. Once the bark had been forced into
form by this method, the remaining ribs were added, and these now held
the hogged bottom down so that the weights or stones could be removed.
The canoe was then turned over, the seams gummed, and any tears or
rents repaired.
This method of building usually produced a slight hogging in both
bottom and in the sheer amidships, but when the canoe was afloat
and loaded the light, flexible construction caused the hogging to
disappear. The kayak-form canoes of the Dènè tribe appear to be the
most highly developed of all in this type.
The decks of many of the kayak-form canoes were made of a triangular
sheet of bark cut with the grain of the bark running athwartships, so
that it could be held in place by the curl of its edges, which clamped
under the outwales, as well as by three lashings. The edges were curled
by passing a glowing brand along them. One lashing was around the
stem-head and two were at the inboard end of the deck, around inwale
and outwale. If the inboard end of the deck was not on a thwart it was
stiffened by a batten lashed on top of the deck athwartship, at the
deck end, to serve as an exterior deck beam and breakwater in one. If
the deck end was on a thwart, a batten might be pegged athwartship on
top of the deck; sometimes this batten was rolled in a sheet of bark
first. Another method was to use a small sheet of bark tightly rolled,
with its free edge tucked under the deck end and secured at the ends
of the roll by the deck-gunwale lashings there. Some canoes had their
decks lashed over battens for a short distance along the gunwales. In
some Mackenzie Basin kayak forms, the end of the deck at the stem-head
was protected by a small paddle-or leaf-shaped piece of bark placed
under the lashing there and shaped to reach a little over onto the stem
piece so as to seal the seam.
The fitting of the bark cover of the kayak-form canoes was not the same
in all types. In the Mackenzie canoes the bottom, which might be in
three, four, or five pieces sewn together, was alike on both sides; to
it the side pieces were sewn at, or just above, the chines. The sides
were made up of deep panels, five to nine to a side. There were no
horizontal seams other than the one near the chines.
In some Yukon canoes, however, the bottom sheet was often made of three
pieces and covered not only the bottom but also a portion, such as
the after two-thirds, of one side. The forward portion of that side
would then be covered by a single large panel or perhaps two, so that
the horizontal seam on that side would run from the stem aft to the
inboard end of the foredeck and would be just above the chine. On the
opposite side a sheet would cover the bottom there and the bow topside
from the stem aft for a short way. Deep panels would then cover the
rest of that side to the stern, so that the horizontal seam there began
forward at the sheer, some feet abaft the bow, and swept downward in a
gentle curve to near the chine and then ran aft to the stern in a long
sheered line just above the turn of the bilge, rising slightly as it
neared the stern. Hence the foremost of the panels on that side was
nearly triangular and the others were nearly rectangular. Inside, at
the chine, was placed a reinforcing strip of bark wide enough to reach
3 inches beyond both sides of each chine longitudinal and running the
length of the bottom; or if a seam near the chine permitted, the side
and bottom pieces were overlapped. As has been noted, in the Yukon
canoes a reinforcing piece at the outwale was not used, but was in the
Mackenzie canoes; it extended down the side about 3 inches below the
underside of the outwale amidships and ran to the ends of the canoe, or
nearly so, tapering with the outwales to a width of about 1½ inches at
bow and stern. In these canoes much of the lashing at stem and stern
was double-thong; the longitudinal sewing was often over a batten in
the usual spiral stitch, and a simple spiral stitch was also used to
join the panels, although in-and-out stitching might also be seen in
some canoes.
In many of the kayak-form canoes two ribs often stood noticeably close
together amidships, and the rest stood parallel to the rake of the end
on their side, respectively, of the middle ribs. However, not all
these canoes had such double ribs; some were framed out in the usual
manner, with the ribs widely spaced and canted toward their respective
ends of the hull, away from the midship of the canoe.
[Illustration: Figure 150
KAYAK-FORM CANOES OF THE ALASKAN ESKIMOS and Canadian Athabascan
Indians: chine form of Eskimo birch-bark canoe (above) and the
dish-sectioned form of the Canadian Athabascans.]
In most of these canoes the paddler sat on a sheet of bark secured on
the bottom; this was held in place by one or two false ribs having
their ends under the inner gunwales and their middle forced down
against the bark on the bottom framework. In place of bark, some Eskimo
builders of the type used thin splints of wood laced together by two or
three lines of double-thong stitching athwartships, which was passed
through two holes in each splint. This might be loose or held in place
by a false frame.
The paddle was single-bladed and the same as that used with the second
class of Mackenzie Basin canoe (fig. 151). The blade was parallel-sided
with the point formed in a short straight-sided ~V~-form; The blade
of Yukon paddles was often taper-sided toward the point, which was
a rounded ~V~. Other variations in blade form existed, however, and
the narrow leaf-shaped blade was used in some areas in Alaska. In the
Mackenzie paddles the handle ended in a knob, but in Alaskan versions
it ended in a cross-grip like those of paddles used with some Alaskan
sea kayaks. The Eskimo double-blade paddle was used with the kayak-form
canoe by some paddlers; Hearne mentions its use.
Some of the kayak-form canoes were decorated; in Alaska this decoration
often took the form of a line of colored beads sewn along each side
of the afterdeck at the gunwale, or it consisted of a few oval panels
of red, blue, or black paint along the sides or centerline of the
afterdeck. In some Mackenzie kayak forms the decks were painted in
various designs; a rather common one seems to have been two or more
bands of paint around the deck edges, along the gunwales, ending at bow
and stern with a full round sweep. Painted disk designs appeared on
some of the large Algonkin-Ojibway canoes of the second type.
A number of kayak forms became extinct before any accurate, detailed
records of their shape and construction had been made; models of some
of these canoes exist but are not to scale and are untrustworthy
as to detail, since they are often simplified. One model of the
extinct British Columbia bateau form, for example, showed but three
longitudinals in the bottom, though the probable size of the canoe
undoubtedly would have required a greater number. On the other hand,
the model may have represented a spruce-bark canoe constructed for
temporary use, in which case a simplified construction might have
been employed. One can only speculate which it was. Models of some
kayak-form Yukon canoes show the decks lashed to the gunwales with
a very coarse spiral stitch not recorded for any of the observed
full-size canoes; thus it may be a model-maker's method of securing
the decking firmly rather than an actual practice used on full-size
canoes.
[Illustration: Figure 151
KAYAK-FORM CANOE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA and upper Yukon valley. Shows
hogged bottom, usual in the type with a rigid bottom frame, which
becomes straight or cambered when canoe is afloat and manned. Original
in the Museum of the American Indian, New York.]
It now remains only to give short descriptions of the various
kayak-form canoes that have been observed.
The ends of the Eskimo-built canoes of the lower Yukon had a short
rake, the heel of the end profile breaking out of the bottom line at
a slight angle and sweeping upward and outward in a gentle curve,
often becoming almost straight near the stem head. The bow and stern
were nearly the same height, the bow being a little higher, about half
the midship depth above the sheer amidships. The sheer at each end
was almost dead straight until within a few inches of the end; thence
it swept up sharply with the inner gunwale ends, broadened, resting
on the inboard side of the stem piece. The extreme ends of the inner
gunwales were thus at the extreme stem-head. The stem-pieces were of
plank, the cutwater portion outside the bark cover being sharpened
the full height of the stems. These lower Yukon canoes had three side
battens above the chine piece, but not all ran the full length in one
piece; some were in two, in which case the ends merely ran past one
another for a few rib-spaces and were neither butted nor lapped. The
forward deck extended nearly one-third the canoe's length and had a
batten across the inboard deck-end; the after deck reached to the after
thwart. Adney's model of such a canoe shows the after deck lashed to
the gunwales with spiral turns over a batten along the deck edges and
finished toward the stern with chain stitching, but no such arrangement
was seen in any full-sized canoe.
The form of these Eskimo-built canoes was nearly that of a double-ended
flat-bottom skiff; the bottom being flat athwartships and without
rocker fore-and-aft. The sides flared and were nearly straight. The
turn of the bilge was quite sharp, the chine having a very short
radius. In plan, the canoe showed no hollow in the ends, which were
convex both at gunwale and on the bottom frame. In some of the
full-sized canoes inspected there appeared to be a slight hog ranging
from ¼ to ⅜ inch in the bottom, but there was no evidence to suggest
that this was a result of the drying and shrinkage of the canoe
structure with age. Hearne's drawing of a kayak-form canoe shows an
impossible amount of hog in the bottom, and he indicates that some hog
was intentional in building. This would disappear when the canoe was
loaded afloat owing to the light and flexible structure, and it is
evident that the builders usually sought to have the bottom slightly
hogged.
[Illustration: Figure 152
CONSTRUCTION OF KAYAK-FORM CANOE of the lower Yukon, showing rigid
bottom frame. (_Smithsonian Institution photo._)]
The kayak-form canoes of the lower Yukon and neighboring streams all
appear to have been small canoes "tailored" to their owner's weight
and height: 14 to 15 feet in overall length, 2 to 2¼ feet wide, and
10 to 12 inches deep. The bottom frame was from 12 to 14 inches wide
amidships.
The kayak-form canoes of the upper Yukon Valley and those used in
northern British Columbia and in Yukon Territory had ends with a
long rake that came up in a straight line from an angular break at
the bottom line to the height of the sheer amidships or thereabouts;
there a gradual upward curve continued to the stem-head. The stern was
2 inches or so higher than the bow, and the rake of the latter was
usually about an equal distance longer than that of the stern. The
sheer was nearly straight, with only about 2 inches of sag from the
heel of the stem to that of the stern. Beyond the heels, the sheer
lifted in a fair sweep, becoming sharper toward the ends, where the
broadened inwales were secured on top of the stem and stern pieces.
There was no rocker in the bottom, and some examples showed as much
as ⅜ inch of hog amidships. The bottom was flat athwartships and the
almost straight sides flared a good deal. The turn of the bilge was on
a very small radius and in some canoes appeared angular. The bow deck
was usually just under one-fifth the length of the canoe. Most of the
canoes did not have a stern deck, at least on the Yukon headwaters,
but on those that did, it was about one-ninth the length of the canoe.
The greatest beam was abaft amidships and the canoe was usually about
1½ inches deeper at the heel of the sternpost than at the heel of the
stem. In plan, the ends (at gunwale and bottom frame) were convex; the
gunwale ends alone might appear slightly hollow close to the posts in
some examples. The canoes in Alaska and British Columbia and at the
headwaters of the Yukon had a rigid bottom structure, with the splint
spreaders usually numbering five.
The 1-man hunting canoes were commonly 18 to 19 feet long, 24 to 27
inches beam, and usually 10 to 11 inches deep amidships. The single
example of a family or cargo kayak-form that has been measured from
this area was 20 feet 1 inch overall and 30¼ inches beam over the
gunwales. It was 18 inches wide on the bottom frame, 13 inches deep
amidships, 14 inches deep at heel of stem, and 16 inches at heel of
stem-post. Height of the stem was 29 inches, of the stern 30½ inches,
the after rake was 38 inches, and the fore rake 40½ inches. The canoe
had no decks and was rather sharp-ended.
The kayak-form canoe of the Athabascan Loucheux had a rigid
bottom-frame; the bottom was flat athwartships and it had no
fore-and-aft rocker. The sides were flaring and slightly curved. Both
ends were alike, and the canoe was unusual in having only five thwarts,
with one amidships. The stem was short in rake and curved; the stem
profile came out of the bottom line in a fair, quick curve which became
vertical at a height of little more than two-thirds the depth amidships
of the canoe. The height of the stem was almost twice the midship
depth. Between the end thwarts the sheer was straight, thence it swept
upward in a gradually sharpening curve to the inboard stems; the inwale
ends stood vertical on the face of the stem, with their ends brought
to the top of the stem-head. The stem-pieces were of unusually thick
plank, with the head broadened and the cutwater part outside the bark
cover sharpened until near the head, where it gradually became as wide
as inboard. The gunwales were lashed with continuous turns, as in the
Alaskan canoes. In plan, the gunwales and bottom frame were full-ended
and convex. These canoes were decked equally at both ends. The deck
extended inboard far enough to just cover the end thwart, to which,
in the example seen, it was lashed with four simple in-and-out passes
of rawhide thong. The chine-pieces of the bottom were lashed to the
sides of the stem-pieces. The covering was birch bark. Two battens on
each side were employed with the usual six longitudinals in the bottom
frame. These canoes were well-built and their ends resemble those of
the seagoing kayaks used at the mouth of the Mackenzie, but these
for at least the last 70 years of their use were round-bottomed. The
Loucheux canoes were small, usually about 15 feet long, 30 inches wide,
and about 12 inches deep amidships.
The Chipewyan kayak-form canoe was of loose-batten bottom frame
construction, with its beam well aft of amidships. Its bottom was
slightly rounded athwartships, with a slight rocker fore-and-aft;
the sides flared outward and were nearly straight; and the turn of
the bilge was almost angular. The bow and stern were of the same
general shape; the end profile came out of the bottom line with a
quick hard curve and then fell outboard in a long sweep that gradually
straightened near the head. The rakes were short, however, and the
stem was noticeably lower than the stern, the difference being as much
as 6 inches in some canoes. The sheer was nearly straight to the end
thwarts and thence it curved up in an easy sweep to the ends of the
canoe. The canoes were markedly deeper at the stern than at the bow;
the difference being as much as 1½ inches in some examples.
This kayak-form was very sharp-ended; the gunwales in plan often showed
a slight hollow and the chine members came to the posts in an almost
straight ~V~. As a result, the end ribs were often intentionally
"broken" to form a narrow-based, angular ~U~. In some Eskimo-built
kayak forms, a similar result in hull section was obtained in the
endmost frames by stepping short struts in splits, or tenons, on
top of the chine members and on the underside of the main gunwales.
This construction was occasionally found in some of the lower Yukon
kayak forms. The Chipewyan kayak forms were decked at both ends. The
fore deck was slightly more than one-fourth the length of the canoe
and extended inboard to the second thwart; the after deck was about
one-tenth, and came inboard to the end thwart. No breakwater batten
or bark was employed. There were two battens on the sides, above the
bilges.
The gunwale wrappings were in groups. The bark cover was not folded
over the top of the inner gunwale but, as usual in the Northwest
canoes, was trimmed evenly with the top of the inwale and outwale.
Reinforcing bark along the gunwales extended downward about 1½ inches
below the bottom of the outwales amidships and about 1 inch at the
ends. Of the bottom longitudinals, the keel and chine-pieces were
roughly rectangular in cross-section, laid on the flat, and the
intermediate two battens were round; the ends of the keel piece were
merely butted against the stems, no lashing being used. The stem piece
was thick plank and was sharpened outside the bark cover to form a
cutwater. The stem lashing was of the usual two-thong form, and a
batten was used in the longitudinal seams of the bark cover. The
thwarts, six in number, were tenoned through both inwale and outwale
and pegged between them. No thwart lashings were used. The decks often
were not lashed into place, being held only by the curling of the edges
of the bark sheets.
This canoe was a very good one; it was light and was fitted to the
owner's build. In size it would be between 12 and 14 feet long and 20
and 24 inches wide over the gunwales, and the width of bottom over the
chine members amidships would be 11 to 12 inches. The greatest beam
would occur 7 to 8¼ feet abaft the stem. The depth at heel of stem
would be 8½ to 9½ inches and at heel of stern, 10 to 11 inches. The
amount of bottom rocker would be between ¾ and 1 inch, with its low
point about amidships. The cover was usually birch bark, but sometimes
spruce bark was used.
[Illustration: Figure 153
MODEL OF AN EXTINCT FORM OF BIRCH-BARK CANOE, Athabascan type, of
British Columbia. In Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge,
Mass.; entered in the museum catalog as of 1849.]
Another kayak-form canoe of unknown tribal designation from the
Mackenzie Basin was 13 feet 3 inches long, 27 inches beam over the
gunwales, 8½ inches deep amidships, 8¾ inches deep at heel of stem, 10
inches deep at the aftermost thwart, and with about ⅜ inch of rocker in
the forebody, none in the afterbody. The greatest beam occurred 7 feet
2 inches from the stem. The width amidships of the bottom framework of
loose longitudinals was 13 inches. The length of the rake foreward was
12 inches and aft, 12 inches. The fore deck extended inboard to the
second thwart, where a roll of bark formed a breakwater. The after deck
extended inboard to the aftermost thwart. Between the end thwarts the
sheer was practically straight; at the ends it rose gently, becoming
almost a straight line as it came to the stem and stern, and without
the usual upward hook in the ends of the gunwales.
This was a very light and well-built canoe with a birch-bark cover, a
slightly rounded bottom athwartships, slack bilge, and flaring sides
showing some curve in cross-section. The ends were rather sharp, the
gunwales coming in to them almost straight, in plan, as did the chine
members. The stem and stern pieces were of wide plank sharpened along
their outboard edge outside the bark cover, for their whole height,
to form cutwaters. The stem and stern profiles were about the same as
those of the Chipewyan canoes.