J fa^/?o/r? Micnjac /?otjo/> Wafer Cor/Of 

 Sfa/T? ■^^ inj/i^e gunnaJfi 34" 



MiCMAC 3-Fathom Ocean Canoe Fitted for Sailing. Short outwales or 

 battens project gunwales to strengthen the ends of the canoe. Some specimens 

 of this type of canoe had almost no rocker in the bottom. 



water before assembly and then staking them out to 

 dry in the required sheer curves. The building bed 

 was well crowned, usually 2 to 2]'i inches because of 

 the very wide bottom and the tumble-home of these 

 canoes. Most Micmac canoes appear to have had 

 only slight fore-and-aft rocker in the bottom; the 

 bottoms of the seagoing type were often quite straight, 

 and the other two types had a slight rocker of perhaps 

 \)'i inches, most of it near the ends. When the sheer 

 was hogged, the amount of hog was probably close to 

 the amount of crown in the building bed. The ends 

 of the gunwales, when laid on the bed, were blocked 

 up to about the desired amount of rocker to be given 

 the bottom. 



The bark cover was selected with great care from 

 the fine stand of paper birch available to the Micmac. 

 Except in emergencies, only winter bark was used. 

 The cover was gored six to eight times on each side, 

 and most of these cuts were grouped amidships, 

 owing to the sharpness of the ends. The gores were 

 trimmed edge-to-edge, without overlap, as the 



Micmac preferred a smooth surfaced canoe, and the 

 sewing was the common spiral, over and over. The 

 width of the bark cover was usually pieced out 

 amidships on each side (at least in existing models) 

 by the addition of narrow panels. These may net 

 have been necessary in the very old canoes, which 

 appear to have been much narrower than more recent 

 examples. The horizontal seams of the panels were 

 straight, or nearly so, and did not follow the sheer. 

 The closely spaced spiral over-and-over stitch was 

 sewn over a batten, the lap being toward the gunwale. 

 As has been said, a continuous over-and-over gunwale 

 lashing was used. The thwart lashings were through 

 single holes in the thwart shoulders, three turns 

 being usual, and two turns around the gunwale on 

 each side were added, all passing through the bark 

 cover, of course. The .sewing was neat and the 

 stitches were even. 



The wood lining, or sheathing, of the Micmac 

 canoe was like that described for the Malecite canoe 

 in the last chapter. The sheathing was a full Jg to 



63 



