The sheathing of all canoes of this class was of the same form--wide, short strakes amidships, narrower short strakes afore and abaft. The midship strakes were often quite short and their ends were over the longer end strakes. The end strakes were, of course, tapered toward the stems. The placing of the strakes was often irregular, with the result that the butts were somewhat staggered. Some canoes had four strakes to the length, but three appears to have been most common. The large canoe was employed on the large lakes of the Mackenzie region; smaller canoes of the same general form, 14 to 16 feet in length and 30 to 40 inches in beam, were used on the large rivers and streams. In the smaller canoes of this class, the flare of the topsides was often less than in the larger craft. The Cree in this area, particularly to the south of Great Slave Lake, also employed the Athabascan form. This class of canoe, in general, appears to have been strongly affected by outside influence; consequently this description must be understood to cover existing canoes and models, not pure Athabascan canoe building. The usual construction methods were employed in building this class of canoe; the stakes around the building frame were set vertically, and when the bark cover was lashed to the gunwale members (inwale and outwale together) the gunwales were spread and the thwarts inserted in their tenons. Skill was required in preshaping the gunwale members, which, as in the fur-trade canoes, had to be arched in sheer amidships to allow for the change in sheer caused by spreading the gunwales in construction. The building bed was also arched at midlength to allow for the lifting of the ends that occurred in spreading the gunwales with the bark cover attached. A typical large Chipewyan canoe of this class was 21 feet 4 inches in overall length, 43 inches beam and 14 inches in depth amidships. A smaller Dogrib canoe of the same class was 14 feet 7 inches in overall length, 31¼ inches beam, and 11½ inches in depth. However, these smaller canoes appear to have been relatively uncommon, and the average large canoe was about 20 feet long. _Kayak-Form Canoe_