Types of canoes on Puget SoundWaterman, T. T. (Thomas Talbot)
History
Types of canoes on Puget Sound
Waterman, T. T. (Thomas Talbot)
Canoes and canoeing; Indians of North America -- Boats; Indians of North America -- History
This type of canoe is called the “shovel-nose” because it is cut off
square at bow and stern and the hull scoops forward like a shovel. The
Songish visited by Boas have the same term, _t1’lai_, but the model
pictured by Boas has a configuration somewhat different in certain
details from the Puget Sound specimens seen. On the sound, the boat is
hewn from one piece, while the Songish are said to add on the flattened
end in the form of a separate plank. In spite of its shape the
“shovel-nose” is in appearance anything but clumsy. It is excellently
designed for a special purpose. A man may stand at the tip-end of bow or
stern, and push with a pole, in shallow water. The people also who live
up the rivers depend on this type of canoe for the spearing of salmon.
When the fish are running in the rivers, one man paddles in the stern
while a companion stands at ease out on the extreme end of the prow,
with his spear poised ready for fish. His position there is ideal for
striking salmon, since he lunges at fish almost directly under his
feet. The bow-end of this boat is more slender than the stern. This type
of boat is useful only in quiet waters. A characteristic piece of
equipment is the canoe pole, _he´Δqalsιd_. Such a canoe is fine for
sandbanks and shoals where the heavy Chinook type, with its features
designed for protection against waves, is largely useless. Far up the
rivers no canoes other than the shovel-nose are seen. The “salt-water”
people, or “_xwaldja´bc_,” relate with amusement that “forest-dwellers,”
or _La´labι^{w}_, that is, the people living up the rivers, have only
one word for canoe. “If it is a _sd_Δ´χωι_L_, or if it is a _sti´waL_,
or even if it is a big αο´τχς, they call it a ‘shovel-nose,’ just the
same.”
Some of these “fresh-water” Indians some years ago came voyaging down to
Port Washington inlet, near the navy yard at Bremerton, in a shovel-nose
canoe. In trying to negotiate the channel during a breeze and a change
of tide, their canoe, which was not designed for such operations, filled
and sank under their feet, and they lost their lives.
[Illustration: WATERMAN--CANOES
PL. VI
THE FINISHED HULL OF THE CANOE SHOWN IN PLATES IV AND V
To the left in the photograph is the bow, which in this case lacks the
“notch” found in many specimens. The “lift” of the boa1’s lines toward
the prow may be plainly seen. This enables it to ride the waves.
(Photograph by J. D. Leechman.)]
E.--THE “ONE-MAN CANOE” (_di´twiL_)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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