"The canoes that navigate the Canadian lakes are among the most ingenious and useful of the Indian manufactures, and nothing that European ingenuity has devised is so well adapted to the habits and necessities of their mode of life. They are made of the bark of the birch-tree; and of all the various contrivances for transporting burdens by water, these vessels are the most extraordinary. From the slightness of their construction, they would appear to be totally inadequate to contend against the rapids they are continually exposed to. They are of various lengths, from twelve to thirty feet (the latter used only by the Hudson's Bay Company); their breadth from four to six feet, diminishing to a point at each end without distinction. The exterior is the bark of the birch-tree, scarcely the eighth part of an inch in thickness: it is kept distended by thin hoops and the bark; the gunwale is a narrow lath, to which the hoop and the bark are sewed with narrow strips of the roots of the white cedar-tree; and the joinings in the bark are rendered water-proof by a species of gum, said to be collected from the wild cherry-tree, which soon becomes perfectly hard. No iron work or nails are employed in their construction; and they are so light, that the common-sized ones are easily carried for several miles by a man of moderate strength. They are worked by paddles over the sides, and the dexterity of the Indians in working them is surprising. They, of course, push them forward, and not backward, as in the operation of rowing. The largest description will carry about five tons of merchandise, besides eight or ten men. The great objection that attends the use of bark canoes is the difficulty of keeping them water-tight. It requires the greatest attention to prevent them from touching a rock, or even the shore, as they would otherwise break; hence they are never brought near to the bank. Two men keep the canoe afloat at a distance, while the rest of the crew load or unload her. The canoe is unloaded every night, raised out of the water, and left on the beach bottom upward. This is also occasionally done when they stop during the day: it affords an opportunity of allowing the canoe to dry, otherwise the bark absorbs much water, and becomes very heavy. All motion on the part of those on board is to be avoided, as it causes the pitch to crack, and renders the canoe leaky."--Keating's _Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River_, vol. ii., p. 72, quoted in Sir George Simpson's _Overland Journey Round the World_, vol. i., p. 14.