Sixth Stage of Canoe Construction: canoe has been righted and placed on a grassy or 

 sandy spot. In this stage splints for sheathing (upper left) are fixed in place and held by 

 temporary ribs (lower right) under the gunwales. The bark cover has been completely sewn 

 and the shape of the canoe is set by the temporary ribs. (Sketch hy A//riev.) 



These are laid along the top of the inner gunwales 

 and fastened down with pegs placed clear of the 

 gunwale lashings. The ends of the strips are usually 

 secured by two or three small lashings; the caps thus 

 formed often stop short of the ends of the inner 

 gunwale members. If the caps are carried right 

 out to the stems, as was the practice of some Malecite 

 builders, the lashings of the outwale are not turned 

 in until after the caps are in place, in which case 

 the bark deck pieces, or flaps, are put in just before 

 the final lashing is made. 



Next, the canoe is turned upside-down and all seams 

 are gummed smoothly on the outside. The ends, from 

 the beginning of the seam to above the watcrline, may 

 be heavily gummed and then covered with a narrow 

 strip of thin bark, heavily enough smeared with gum 

 to cause it to adhere over the seam. In more recent 

 times a piece of gummed cloth was used here. Above 

 this protective strip, the end seams are filled with 

 gum so that the outside can be smoothed off flush 

 on the face of the cutwater between the stitches. All 

 seams in the side and bottom are gummed smooth 

 and any holes or patches remaining to be gummed arc 

 taken care of in this final inspection. 



If the canoe is to be decorated (not many types 

 were) the outside of the bark is moistened and the 



rough, reddish winter bark, or inner rind, is scraped 

 away, leaving only enough to form the desired decora- 

 tions. When paints of various colors could be ob- 

 tained, these were also employed, but the use of the 

 inner rind was apparently the older and more common 

 method of decorating. 



The paddles are made from splints of spruce or 

 maple, ash, white cedar, or larch. Two forms of 

 blade were used by the Malecite. The older form is 

 long and narrow, with the blade wide near the top 

 and the taper straight along each edge to a narrow, 

 rounded point. Above the greatest width, the blade 

 tapers almost straight along the edge, coming into 

 an oval handle very quickly. At the head, the 

 handle is widened and it ends squared oflf, but the 

 taper toward the handle is straight, not flared as 

 in modern canoe paddles; there is no swelling. 

 Paddles of a shape similar to this, some without a 

 wide handle, were used by other eastern Indians. 

 The more recent form of Malecite paddle has a 

 long leaf-shaped, or beaver-tail, blade, much like 

 that of the modern canoe paddle, except that it ends 

 in a dull point; the handle is as in the old form but 

 the head is swelled to form the upper grip. The face 

 of the blade, in both old and new form, has a notice- 

 able ridge down the centerline. 



53 



