Roll of Bark for a Hunting Canoe. Holding the bark is the intended 

 builder, Vincent Mikans, then (in 1927), at age 100, the oldest Indian on the 

 Algonkin Reserve at Golden Lake, Ont. 



dug up with a sharp stick or with the hands. In some 

 areas of favorable growing conditions, the roots of 

 the black spruce could be obtained in lengths up to 

 20 feet, yet with a maximum diameter no larger than 

 that of a lead pencil. 



Other roots could be used in an emergency, such 

 as those of the other spruces, as well as of the northern 

 white-cedar {Thuja occidentalis L.), tamarack (hack- 

 matack or eastern larch {Laris laricina (Du Roi) 

 K. Koch) and jack pine {Pinus banksiana Lamb.), 

 the last named being used extensively by some of the 

 western tribes. Although inferior to the black spruce 

 for sewing, these and other materials were used for 

 sewing bark; even rawhide was employed for some 

 purposes in canoe construction by certain tribes. 



Canoes built of nonrcsinous barks were usually 

 lashed, instead of sewn, by thongs of such material 

 as the inner bark of the northern white cedar, bass- 

 wood, elm, or hickory, for the reason stated earlier. 

 Spruce root was also used for lashings, if readily 

 available. Since sheets of birch bark were joined 

 without employing a needle, the sewing actually could 

 more correctly be termed lacing, rather than stitching. 

 But for the nonresinous barks, which could stand 

 little sewing or lacing, perhaps lashing is the better 

 term. 



Before steel tools became available to the Indians, 

 the woodwork required in constructing a birch-bark 

 canoe represented great labor, since stone tools hav- 

 ing poor cutting characteristics were used. Selection 



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