In judging the size of the canoe mentioned in a fur-trader's journal, it is often very difficult to be certain whether the measurement he is employing is bottom or gunwale length. In the largest canoes, however, the 5½-fathom bottom-length was the 6-fathom gunwale length, and the use of either usually, but not always, indicates the method of measurement. This is not the case in the small canoe however, where the matter must too often be left to guesswork. To give the reader a more precise idea of the sizes of the canoes last employed in the fur trade, the following will serve. The _maître canot_ of the Montreal-Great Lakes run was commonly about 36 feet overall, or about 32 feet 9 inches over the gunwales, and a little over 32 feet on the bottom. The beam at gunwale was roughly 66 inches (inside the gunwales) or about 68-70 inches extreme beam. The width of the building frame that formed the bottom would be somewhere around 42 inches. The depth amidships, from bottom to top of gunwale might be approximately 30-32 inches and the height of the stems roughly 54 inches. These dimensions might be best described as average, since canoes with gunwale length given as 6 fathoms were built a number of inches wider or narrower, and deeper or shallower. The earlier fur-trade canoes of the French and of the North West Company, for example, were apparently narrower than the above. [Illustration: Figure 130 "BIVOUAC IN EXPEDITION IN HUDSON'S BAY CANOE." From an oil painting by Hopkins (_Public Archives of Canada photo_).] [Illustration: Figure 131 OJIBWAY 3-FATHOM FUR-TRADE CANOE, a cargo-carrying type, marked by cut-under end profiles, that was built as late as 1894.] [Illustration: Figure 132 THIS TYPE OF 5-FATHOM FUR-TRADE CANOE was built at L. A. Christopherson's Hudson's Bay Company posts at Grand Lake Victoria, Lake Barrière, and Lake Abitibi. Called the Ottawa River canoe by fur-traders, it was used for fast travel and shows the upright stems of the northwest Quebec Algonkin.] The 5-fathom size that replaced the larger canoe at the close of the bark-canoe period was about 31 feet long over the gunwales or 30 feet 8 inches in a straight line from tip of upturned rail cap at one stem to the other. The beam inside the gunwales was 60 inches. The width of the building frame would be between 40 and 45 inches, and the frame when formed would be about 26 feet 8 inches long. The depth of the canoe amidships, from bottom to top of gunwale, was approximate 30 inches and the height of the stems about 50 inches. The overall length of such a canoe was about 34 feet 4 inches. An express canoe of this size would be about 56 inches beam inside the gunwales or even somewhat less, and the depth amidships about 28 inches or a little less. [Illustration: Figure 133 "HUDSON'S BAY CANOE RUNNING THE RAPIDS." From an oil painting by Hopkins (_Public Archives of Canada photo_).]