These canoes paddled well in strong winds and in smooth water, and worked quietly in the marshes where they were much used. Canvas canoes of the same model replaced the bark canoes, indicating that the model was suitable for its locality and use. These sturgeon-nose canoes were so different from other North American bark canoes that they have been the subject of much speculation, particularly since ram-ended canoes, though of different construction, existed in Asia. The size of the Kutenai-Salish sturgeon-nose canoes varied; the most common size appears to have been between 14 and 20 feet over the ends of the rams, 24 to 28 inches beam, and with a depth ranging from 12 to 13 inches amidships and from 14½ to 17½ inches at the ends of the gunwales. However, records exist that show rather large canoes were built on this model, 24 feet over the rams, 48 inches beam and 24 inches depth. The building methods of this type of canoe have never been reported. Probably some kind of a rough building frame was used. Perhaps this was comprised of a couple of the battens and the keel piece, weighted with stones. The building bed was probably level. The main gunwale members were apparently made up temporarily and the bark cover shaped and staked out. From that point the work may have followed the usual canoe-building practices except that the ends could not be closed until the framing there was complete, otherwise it would have been impossible to fasten the small ribs in the rams. The structure of these canoes appears to have been almost entirely cedar, except for the bark and lacings which, in some instances, were partly some bark fiber as well as roots. In general, the construction of this class of canoe did not match in quality that of the other bark canoes of the Northwest. [Illustration: Figure 156 INDIANS WITH CANOE at Alert Bay, on Cormorant Island, B.C.] _Chapter Seven_ ARCTIC SKIN BOATS _Howard I. Chapelle_ Among the three primitive watercraft of North America (the others being the dugout and the bark canoe of the American Indians), the Arctic skin boats of the Eskimos are remarkable for effective design and construction obtained under conditions in which building materials are both scarce and limited in selection. The Arctic skin boat is almost entirely to be found in the North American Arctic from Bering Sea to the East Coast of Greenland. In Russian Siberia, only in a small area of the eastern Arctic lands adjacent to the North American continent are any employed.