FUR-TRADE CANOE STEM-PIECES, models made by Adney: 1, Têtes de Boule type; 2, Ojibway form; 3, old Algonkin form.] During Christopherson's long service he knew the canoes built in his vicinity at such nearby building posts as Lake Abitibi, Lake Waswanipi, and Kipewa, in western Quebec; and Lake Timagami (Bear Island), Matachewan on Montreal River, Matagama (west of Sudbury), and Missinaibi, in nearby Ontario. These were but a few of the building posts, of course, for canoes were built at numerous posts to the west and northward. When portaged, the large canoes might be carried right side up or upside down, the former being more usual method. The _canot du nord_ was often light enough to be carried by two paddlers, one under each end, with the canoe right side up and steadied by a cord tied to the offside gunwale and held in the carrier's hand. The _maître canot_ required four men to carry it. Various methods were used. One was to lash carrying sticks across the gunwales near the ends and to carry the canoe right side up with a man on the end of each stick. Another way was for the men to distribute themselves along the bottom of the canoe, near the ends, and to use steadying cords. Or the canoe might be carried upside down with the men carrying it by placing one shoulder under the gunwales at convenient places. When a bad place in the portage was reached, the whole crew might have to turn to. The method of portaging had to meet the physical limitation of the portage path and the matter was not so much one of standard procedure as of improvisation of the moment. [Illustration: Figure 142 PORTAGING A 4½-FATHOM FUR-TRADE CANOE, ABOUT 1902, near the head of the Ottawa River. Shows an unusually large number of carriers; four would be the normal number. (_Canadian Pacific Railway Company photo._)] The voyageur was particular about his paddle; no man in his right mind would use a blade wider than between 4½ and 5 inches, for anything wider would exhaust him in a short distance. The paddle reached to about the users' chin, when he stood with the tip of the paddle on the ground in front of him. Longer paddles, about 6 feet long, were used by the bow and stern men, the two most skillful voyageurs in the canoe and the highest paid. These men had, also, spare paddles whose total length was 8 feet or more; these were used in running rapids only. The paddles were of hardwood, white or yellow birch or maple, as hardwood paddles could be made thin in the blade and small in the handle without loss of strength, whereas softwood paddles could not. The blades were sometimes painted white, the tips in some color such as red, blue, green or black, but other color combinations were often used.