:5cc/r m Frel' 



3eo/7? 37^ " /r7j/£^e qu^tva/e/ 33 " 



Old Form of Malecite-Abnaki 2' j-Fathom Ocean Canoe of the Penobscots. 

 In the Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass. 



the upper gunwale and the heels stuck into the earth. 

 The dunnage (provisions or other cargo) was then 

 stowed on the ground under the ends of the canoe 

 and the two men would sleep under a single blanket 

 with their feet pointed in opposite directions, each 

 with his head on a pile of dunnage. If there were 

 too many men aboard to do this, in bad weather a 

 crude shelter was made by resting some poles on the 

 upturned bilge and covering them with sheets of 

 bark; under such a shelter meals could be cooked. 



As did many of the eastern Indians, the old M'ale- 

 cite tribesmen built canoes of materials other than 

 birch bark. When a canoe was required for a tem- 

 porary use such as in hunting, it could be made of 

 spruce bark. (As the designs of such canoes were 

 rather standardized, they will be dealt with in Chapter 

 8.) When bark was unobtainable, the Malecite built 

 canoes covered with moosehide, or, in rare instances, 

 they built wooden dugouts. 



The old Malecite river canoe shown on page 71 

 will serve to Illustrate a description of the details of 

 construction that were used. These canoes were 

 obviously built with their gunwales (which were the 



length of the bottom only) serving as a building frame. 

 The ends of the gunwales were supported by head- 

 boards stepped on the heels of the inner stem-pieces, 

 and the stems raked outward from their heels. The 

 gunwale ends were joined to the head of the stem- 

 piece by the outwales and the gunwale caps. Bark 

 was used to the ends of the canoe. One side of the 

 bark cover was cut so that it stood well above the sheer 

 line from the gunwale end outboard, and the opposite 

 side was cut to the level of the sheer. The first piece 

 was then folded over the opposite side and down, so 

 that it covered both the extreme ends of the gunwales 

 and the top of the inner ^tem-piece. Another piece 

 of bark was then fitted over this fold, and this new- 

 piece formed the flaps below the outwales on each 

 side, the wulegessis. The outwales ran past the gun- 

 wale ends and were cut off flush with the outboard 

 face of the stem; the caps ran likewise and covered the 

 bark over the head of the inner stem piece. The 

 characteristic sheer of these canoes, where the rise 

 toward the ends began, showed a quick curve that 

 faired into a rising straight line at the gunwale and 

 then continued straight and rising to the stem head. 



72 



