mained a very good one in each type. The half- 

 circular ends, sharp lines, and standard midsectional 

 forms were unaltered; the hogged sheer was retained 

 in some degree in at least two of the canoe types, the 

 rough water and the big river, right down to the end of 

 bark-canoe building by this tribe. The very fine 

 design and attractive appearance of the Micmac 

 canoe may have contributed to the early acceptance 

 by the early explorers and traders of the birch-bark 

 canoe as the best mode of water transport for forest 

 travel. 



M.alecite 



Another tribe expert in canoe building and use 

 was the Malecite. These Indians were known to the 

 early French explorers as the "Etchimins" or "Tar- 

 ratines" (or Tary tines). Many explanations have 

 been given for the name Malecite. One is that it 

 was applied to these people by the Micmac and 

 is from their word meaning "broken talkers," since 

 the Micmac had difficulty in understanding them. 

 When the Europeans came, these people inhabited 

 central and southern New Brunswick and the shore of 

 Passamaquoddy Bay, with small groups or tribal sub- 

 divisions in the area of the Penobscot to the Kennebec. 

 These were early affected by the retreat of the New 

 England Indians before the whites into eastern and 

 northern Maine and southeastern Quebec. As a 

 result, the Penobscot and Kennebec Indians became 

 part of the group later known as Abnaki, while the 

 Passamaquoddy Indians remained wholly Malecite 

 and closely attached to those living along the St. John 

 River in New Brunswick. Like their neighbors the 

 Micmac, the Malecite were hunters and warlike; 

 during the colonial period they were usually friendly 

 to the French and enemies of the English settlers in 

 their vicinity. It is not certain that the tribe now 

 called by that name were actually of a single tribal 

 stock; it is possible that this designation really covers 

 a loose federation of small tribal groups who even- 

 tually achieved a common language. In addition, 

 the tribal designation cannot be wholly accurate 

 because of the fact that much of the original group 

 living in New England were absorbed in the Abnaki 

 in the 17th and 18th centuries. Therefore, the Male- 

 cite are considered here to be those Indians formerly 

 inhabiting valleys of the St. John and the St. Croix 

 Rivers, and the Passamaquoddy Bay area. The 



remaining portions, the Kennebec and Penobscot 

 Indians, must now be classed as Abnaki, of whom 

 more later (see p. 88). 



In considering the birch-bark canoes of the Male- 

 cite, it is important to understand that this tribal 

 form includes not only the types used in more recent 

 times in New Brunswick and on Passamaquoddy Bay, 

 but also an overlapping type related to the later 

 Abnaki models. The old form of Malecite canoe 

 used on the large rivers and along the coast appears 

 to have had rather high-peaked ends, with a marked 

 overhang fore and aft. The end profiles had a 

 sloping outline, strongly curved into the bottom, and 

 a rather sharply lifting sheer toward each end. This 

 form was also to be seen in old canoes from the St. 

 John River (the lower valley), the Passamaquoddy, 

 the Penobscot, and the upper St. Lawrence. By late 

 in the 19th century, however, this style of canoe had 

 been replaced by canoes having rounded ends, the 

 profiles being practically quarter-circles and some- 

 times with such small radii that a slight tumble-home 

 appeared near the sheer. The small radius of the end 

 curves is particularly marked in some of the seagoing 

 porpoise-hunting canoes of the Passamaquoddy. In 

 modern forms, the amount of sheer is moderate and 

 the quick lift in the sheer to the ends is practically 

 nonexistent. On the St. Lawrence, the radii of the 

 end curves are very short and the upper part of the 

 stems stands vertical and straight; the sheer, too, is 

 usually rather straight. The older type, with high- 

 peaked ends, was also marked by very sharp lines for- 

 ward and aft, and had a midsection with tumble-home 

 less extreme than in the Micmac canoes. The bot- 

 tom, athwartships, was usually somewhat rounded 

 (in coastal canoes the form might be a rounded V) 

 and the bilges were rather slack, with a reverse 

 curve above, to form the tumble-home rather close 

 to the gunwales. The river model probably had 

 lower ends and less rake than the coastal type, but 

 surviving examples of both give confusing evidence. 

 The river canoes usually had a flatter bottom than 

 the coastal type, the latter having somewhat more 

 rocker fore-and-aft. The sections near the ends were 

 rather V-shaped in the coastal canoes, U-shaped in 

 the river canoes. 



The old form of small hunting canoe is represented 

 by but one poor model (see p. 72) in which the ends are 

 lower and with much less rake than those of the river 

 type. From this very scant evidence, it seems probable 

 that the small woods canoes were patterned on the 

 river canoe in all respects but the profile of the ends. 



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