request of The Mariners' Museum, I have assembled 

 the pertinent papers and ha%'e compiled from Adncy's 

 research notes as complete a description as I could 

 of bark canoes, their history, construction, decoration 

 and use. I had long been interested in the primitive 

 watercraft of the Americas, but I was one of those 

 who had discontinued research on bark canoes upon 

 learning of Adney's work. The little I had accom- 

 plished dealt almost entirely with the canoes of Alaska 

 and British Columbia; from these I had turned to 

 dugouts and to the skin boats of the Eskimo. There- 

 fore I have faced with much diffidence the task of 

 assembling and preparing the Adney papers for 

 publication, particularly since it was not always 

 clear what Adney had finally decided about certain 

 matters pertaining to canoes. His notes were seldom 

 arranged in a sequence that would enable the reader 

 to decide which, of a number of solutions or opinions 

 given, were Adney's final ones. 



Adney's interest in canoes, as canoes, was very great, 

 but his interest in anthropology led him to form many 

 opinions about pre-Columbian migrations of Indian 

 tribes and about the significance of the decorations 

 used in some canoes. His papers contain con- 

 siderable discussion of these matters, but they are in 

 such state that only an ethnologist could edit and 

 evaluate them. In addition, my own studies lead me 

 to conclude that the mere examination of watercraft 

 alone is insufficient evidence upon which to base 

 opinions as far-reaching as those of Adney. Therefore 

 I have not attempted to present in this work any of 

 Adney's theories regarding the origin or ethnological 

 significance of the canoes discussed. I have followed 

 the same practice with those Adney papers which 

 concern Indian language, some of which relate to in- 

 dividual tribal canoe types and are contained in the 

 canoe material. (Most of his papers on linguistics 

 are now in The Peabody Museum, Salem, 

 Massachusetts.) 



The strength and weaknesses of Adney's work, as 

 shown in his papers, drawings, and models, seem to 

 me to be fully apparent. That part dealing with 

 the eastern Indians, with whom he had long personal 

 contact, is by far the most voluminous and, perhaps, 

 the most accurate. The canoes used by Indians 

 west of the St. Lawrence as far as the western end of 

 the Great Lakes and northward to the west side of 

 Hudsons Bay are, with a few exceptions, covered in 

 somewhat less detail, but the material nonetheless 

 appears ample for our purpose. The canoes used in 

 the Canadian Northwest, except those from the 



vicinity of Great Slave Lake, and in Alaska were less 

 well described. It appears that Adney had relatively 

 little opportunity to examine closely the canoes used 

 in Alaska, during his visit there in 1900, and that he 

 later was unable to visit those American museums 

 having collections that would have helped him with 

 regard to these areas. As a result, I have found it 

 desirable to add my own material on these areas, 

 drawn largely from the collections of American mu- 

 seums and from my notes on construction details. 



An important part of Adney's work deals with the 

 large canoes used in the fur trade. Very little beyond 

 the barest of descriptions has been published and, 

 with but few exceptions, contemporary paintings and 

 drawings of these canoes are obviously faulty. Adney 

 was fortunate enough to have been able to begin his 

 research on these canoes while there were men alive 

 who had built and used them. As a result he ob- 

 tained information that would have been lost within, 

 at most, the span of a decade. His interest was doubly 

 keen, fortunately, for Adney not only was interested 

 in the canoes as such, he also valued the information 

 for its aid in painting historical scenes. As a result, 

 there is hardly a question concerning fur trade canoes, 

 whether of model, construction, decoration, or use, 

 that is not answered in his material. 



I have made every effort to preserve the results 

 of Adney's investigations of the individual types in 

 accurate drawings or in the descriptions in the text. 

 It was necessary to redraw and complete most of 

 Adney's scale drawings of canoes, for they were pre- 

 pared for model-building rather than for publication. 

 Where his drawings were incomplete, they could be 

 filled in from his scale models and notes. It must be 

 kept in mind that in drawing plans of primitive craft 

 the draftsman must inevitably "idealize" the subject 

 somewhat, since a drawing shows fair curves and 

 straight lines which the primitive craft do not have 

 in all cases. Also, the inboard profiles are diagram- 

 matic rather than precise, because, in the necessary re- 

 duction of the full-size canoe to a drawing, this is the 

 only way to show its "form" in a manner that can be 

 interpreted accurately and that can be reproduced 

 in a model or full size, as desired. It is necessary to 

 add that, though most of the Adney plans w-ere meas- 

 ured from full-size canoes, some were reconstructed 

 from Indian models, builders' information, or other 

 sources. Thanks to Adney's thorough knowledge of 

 bark construction, the plans are highly accurate, but 

 there are still chances for error, and these are dis- 

 cussed where they occur. 



