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Malecite 2^2-Fathom St. Lawrence River Canoe, probably a hybrid model. 

 The high ends show a western influence. 



The midsection shows a remarkable amount of V 

 in the bottom without any tumble-home anywhere 

 in the topsides. The V-bottom is rounded at the 

 apex, where the keel would be; this is done by bending 

 the ribs very sharply where they cross the centerline 

 of the hull. A narrow strake of thin sheathing runs 

 along the centerline of the canoe, and this is bent 

 athwartwise to follow the bends in the ribs there. 

 The canoe had 46 ribs, each 2)'i inches wide and ^(e 

 inch thick, tapered slightly from the middle up to the 

 gunwales. The gunwales, as previously noted, are 

 nailed and the main gunwale members are of sawed 

 spruce. The rest of the framework is cedar. 



The outside of the canoe was painted red, the 

 inside was a pale yellow, the gunwales and middle 

 portions of the thwarts were cobalt blue, the ends 

 of the thwarts were red. The wulegessis was blue, 

 and the "canoe mark" was a painted representation of 

 the spread eagle of the United States Seal, the border 

 being in black and white and the eagle in black, 

 yellow, and white, holding a brown branch with 

 green leaves. The whole panel was outlined in red. 

 On the side of the canoe, near the stern, was a white 



swallowtail pennant on which is lettered "Frenchmans 

 Bay" in black capital letters. This canoe was used 

 for fishing and also for porpoise and seal hunting. 



The construction employed to form the V-bottom 

 in a birch-bark canoe can be seen to have been done 

 in two ways; that described on page 76 is undoubtedly 

 the method used in prehistoric times, since laborious 

 forming of a V keel-piece in the sheathing, using 

 stone scrapers, would be avoided. The V-bottom, it 

 should be noted, usually appears in canoes used in 

 open waters, as this form tends to run straight under 

 paddle, in spite of a side wind, and thus requires the 

 minimum of steering to hold it on its course. It was 

 this characteristic, too, that made the V-bottom suit- 

 able for the racing canoe on the St. John River, since 

 stopping the stroke momentarily to steer diminishes 

 the driving power of the stern paddler. 



The various river canoes of the Malecite, built to 

 the modern low, rounded-end profiles, or to the short - 

 radii and straigiit-line forms, held rather closely to 

 the same linos, that is, sharp ends with a rather 

 flat bottom amidships and an easy bilge. Some of 

 the canoes retained the characteristic tumble-home 



77 



