The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North AmericaChapelle, Howard Irving
History
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America
Chapelle, Howard Irving
Canoes and canoeing -- North America; Indians of North America -- Boats; Skin boats -- North America
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.
[Illustration: Figure 114
OJIBWAY 2-FATHOM HUNTER'S CANOE, used by the eastern tribal groups.
Probably the ancient model.]
[Illustration: 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.]
[Illustration: Figure 116
OJIBWAY 3-FATHOM FREIGHT CANOE FROM LAKE TIMAGAMI, apparently a hybrid
based on canvas canoes.]
[Illustration: 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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