Third Stage of Canoe Construction: the bark cover is shaped on the building bed. The 

 gores have been cut; part ol' 'he cover is shaped and secured by stakes and battens. "A" shows 

 battens secured by sticks lashed to stakes. {Sketch by Adney.) 



long stitch to the next group. In some elm and other 

 bark canoes employing basswood or cedar-bark 

 lashings the bark was tied with a single turn at wide 

 intervals; when roots were used in these, however, 

 small groupings of stitches were customary. When 

 group lashings were used with birch bark, the inter- 

 vals between groups was usually relatively short, 

 though in a few canoes the groups and intervals were 

 of nearly equal length. 



In an independent group, the ends of the strand 

 were treated as in whipping, the tail being under the 

 first turns made and the end tucked back under the 

 last^usually on the inside of the gunwales. Where 

 there were inner and outer gunwales the lashing was 

 always around both, and the tail might be jammed 

 between them. If a cap was used on the gunwales, 

 the lashings were always under it. The use of a 

 knotted turn to start a lashing occurred only in the 

 old Tetes de Boule canoes. 



On the Malecite canoe, the sides are pieced out 

 in one to three panels rather than in one long, narrow 

 panel on each side. The panel for the midlength 

 requires the greatest strength and is usually lapped 

 inside the bottom bark. The latter is first trimmed 

 straight along its edge, and the panel inserted behind 



it with a couple of inches of lap. Then the two pieces 

 of bark are sewn together over a halved-root batten 

 with an over-and-over stitch. (Other tribes used 

 some form of the harness stitch, or a similar style, 

 allowing great strength.) The middle panel does not 

 extend much beyond the ends of the first pair of 

 thwarts on each side of the middle. The next panels 

 toward the ends are lapped outside the bottom bark 

 and are sewn with the back-stitch. Then, if still 

 another panel is required at each end, this too is 

 lapped outside and is sewn in the lap with an in-and- 

 out stitch. The ends of the panels are usually sewn 

 with an over-and-over stitch that runs square with 

 the seam outside and diagonally to it inside the bark. 

 (The harness stitch was used here by some tribes, as 

 were many forms of the cross-stitch.) The ends of the 

 canoe and the gores have already been sewn during 

 an earlier stage of the building process. 



Once the sides are pieced out, the bark is ready to 

 be turned up and around the gunwale frame and 

 clamped perpendicularly. To effect this, small 

 stakes are made by halving saplings, so that each half 

 is about a half inch thick. The butt of each half is 

 cut chisel -shaped, with the bevel on the flat side; the 

 rounded face is smoothed off, and it may be tapered 



45 



