-Tcajir //7 feff 





Figure 52 



MiCMAC 2}<-Fathom Big-River Canoe, built for fast paddling and of moderate 

 capacity. 



of the tenon. In some, the tenon went through the 

 main gunwales and touched the inside of the bark 

 cover; in others the ends of the thwarts were pointed 

 in elevation, square in plan, and were inserted in 

 shallow, blind tenons on the inboard side of the main 

 gunwales. A single 3-turn lashing through a hole in 

 the shoulder and around the main gunwale was used 

 in every case. 



Sometimes the thwarts just described were straight 

 (in plan view) on the side toward the middle of the 

 canoe, and only the middle thwart was alike on both 

 sides. In others the straight side of the end thwart 

 and of that next inboard were toward the bow and 

 stern of the canoe. In still others, the middle thwart 

 had a rounded barb form in plan, with the barb 

 located within 6 or 7 inches of the shoulder and pointed 

 toward the tenon; the ne.\t thwarts out on each side of 

 the middle thwart were shaped like a cupid's bow but 

 slightly angular and aimed toward the ends of the 

 canoe, and the end thwarts were of similar plan. In 

 one known example having such thwarts, there were 

 two very short thwarts at the ends of the canoe, of the 

 usual plain form described earlier, each a few inches 



inboard of the headboard. Thus this canoe had 

 seven thwarts in the old fashion. 



The ribs, or frames, were thin, about )\ or ){f, inch 

 thick, and across the bottom of the canoe they were 

 often 3 inches wide. In the topsides the ribs were 

 tapered to about 2 inches in width; when the bottom 

 and outboard corner of the main gunwales were not 

 beveled, the rib ends were cut square across on the 

 wide face and chisel-shaped. When the gunwale 

 corner was beveled, the ribs were formed with a 

 sharply tapered dull point at the ends. From the 

 middle of the canoe to the first thwarts each way from 

 the middle, the ribs were spaced 1 inch edge-to-edge. 

 From the first thwarts to the ends, the spacing was 

 about 1 Yi inches. Most builders made the ribs nar- 

 rower toward the ends; if those in the middle of the 

 canoe were 3 inches wide, those near the ends might 

 be 2y<i. They were shaped and placed as described 

 for the Malecite canoe in Chapter 3. 



In the construction of a Micmac canoe, the gun- 

 wales were first formed, assembled, and used as a 

 building frame. If the sheer was to be hogged, this 

 was done by treating the main gunwales with boiling 



62 



