Figure 22 



Canoe formed (a) without crimping or goring 

 sides, showing hogged bottom; and (b) with 

 ram ends to reduce hogging of bottom. 



Canoe formed (a) by crimping sides, showing 

 rockered bottom hne, and (b) by simple gores 

 in sides. The same effects are obtained by 

 making bark cover of three pieces: sides and 

 bottom. 



together. The characteristics of these barks can 

 readily be demonstrated with a sheet of paper: 

 such a sheet can be made into a crude canoe-form by 

 bending it lengthwise and joining the ends, but it 

 will be obvious that the midsection takes a very 

 unstable U-form. By forcing the ends inward to give 

 a ram, or chin, effect to bow and stern, a somewhat 

 flatter bottom can be obtained in the midsection. By 

 crimping or folding the paper gore-fashion near each 

 end of the canoe-form at the gunwale edge, some 

 rocker is created in the bottom and the width of the 

 gunwales is increased near the ends, giving more 

 capacity. But without the crimping along the 

 gunwale, when the midsection form is flattened on 

 the bottom, the latter tends to hog. Many of these 

 bark canoes utilized both the rams ends and crimping 

 to obtain a more useful form. However, while a 

 sheet of birch bark could be crimped or gored into 



a scow-form canoe stich as the Asiatic birch-bark 

 canoe, no example of this form from North America 

 is known. On this continent all bark canoes were 

 sharp at both ends, i.e., double-ended, although a 

 number of North American dugouts were scow- (oi 

 punt-) shaped. 



Birch bark gave much more freedom in the selection 

 of form simply because it could be joined together in 

 small odd-sized sheets to shape a hull, and because 

 it was elastic enough to allow some "moulding" by 

 pressure of the framework employed. Birch bark 

 could be gored, or slashed, and rejoined without 

 resort to folding or crimping; thus it permitted a 

 smooth exterior surface to be achieved. The tough- 

 ness of the bark was sufficient to allow some sewing 

 in line with the grain, to add to the width of a sheet, 

 if the proper technique were employed (this was also 

 true to a lesser extent of spruce bark). 



30 



