Chapter Two 

 MATERIALS and TOOLS 



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'ark of the paper birch was the material pre- 

 ferred by the North American Indians for the con- 

 struction of their canoes, although other barks 

 were used where birch was not available. This 

 tree {Betula papyrifera Marsh.), also known as the 

 canoe birch, is found in good soil, often near streams, 

 and where growing conditions are favorable it be- 

 comes large, reaching a height of a hundred feet, with 

 a butt diameter of thirty inches or more. Its range 

 forms a wide belt across the continent, with the north- 

 ern limits in Canada along a line extending westward 

 from Newfoundland to the southern shores of Hudson 

 Bay and thence generally northwestward to Great Bear 

 Lake, the Yukon River, and the Alaskan coast. The 

 southern limits extend roughly westward from Long 

 Island to the southern shores of Lake Erie and through 

 central Michigan to Lake Superior, thence through 

 Wisconsin, northern Nebraska, and northwesterly 

 through the Dakotas, northern Montana, and north- 

 ern Washington to the Pacific Coast. The trees are 

 both abundant and large in the eastern portion of the 

 belt, particularly in Newfoundland, Quebec, the 

 Maritime Provinces, Ontario, Maine, and New 

 Hampshire, in contrast to the western areas. Near 

 the limits of growth to the north and south the trees 

 are usually small and scattered. 



The leaves are rather small, deep green, and 

 pointed-oval, and are often heart-shaped at the base. 

 The edges of the leaves are rather coarsely toothed 

 along the margin, which is slightly six-notched. The 

 small limbs are black, sometimes spotted with white, 

 and the large are white. 



The bark of the tree has an aromatic odor when 

 freshly peeled, and is chalky white marked with black 

 splotches on either side of limbs or where branches 

 have grown at one time. Elsewhere on the bark, 

 dark, or black, horizontal lines of varying lengths also 

 appear. The lower part of the tree, to about the 

 height of winter snows, has bark that is usually 



rough, blemished and thin: above this level, to the 

 height of the lowest large limbs, the bark is often only 

 slightly blemished and is thick and well formed. The 

 bark is made up of paper-like layers, their color deep- 

 ens with each layer from the chalky white of the ex- 

 terior through creamy buff to a light tan on the inner 

 layer. A gelatinous greenish to yellow rind, or cam- 

 bium layer, lies between the bark and the wood of 

 the trunk; its characteristics are different from those 

 of the rest of the bark. The horizontal lines that ap- 

 pear on each successive paper-like layer do not appear 

 on the rind. 



The thickness of the bark cannot be judged from 

 the size of a tree and may vary markedly among trees 

 of the same approximate size in a single grove. The 

 thickness varies from a little less than one-eighth to 

 over three-sixteenths inch; bark with a thickness of 

 one-quarter inch or more is rarely found. For 

 canoe construction, bark must be over one-eighth inch 

 thick, tough, and from a naturally straight trunk of 

 sufficient diameter and length to give reasonably 

 large pieces. The "eyes" must be small and not so 

 closely spaced as to allow the bark to split easily in 

 their vicinity. 



The bark can be peeled readily when the sap is 

 flowing. In winter, when the exterior of the tree is 

 frozen, the bark can be removed only when heat is 

 applied. During a prolonged thaw, however, this 

 may be accomplished without the application of heat. 

 Bark peeled from the tree during a winter thaw, and 

 early in the spring or late in the fall, usually adheres 

 strongly to the inner rind, which comes away from the 

 tree with the bark. The act of peeling, however, 

 puts a strain on the bark, so that only tough, well- 

 made bark can be removed under these conditions. 

 This particular characteristic caused Indians in the 

 east to call bark with the rind adhering "winter 

 bark," even though it might have been peeled from 

 a tree during the warm weather of early summer. 



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