Model of a St. Francis-Abnaki Canoe Under Construction, showing 

 method of moulding ribs inside the assembled bark cover. 



made by hand, finger, and arm measurements. 

 Basket ash strips were often used in transferring 

 measurements. 



From what has been said, it will be seen that the 

 construction practice of the St. Francis did not follow 

 in all details that of their Malecite relatives. The 

 intrusion of western practices into this group probably 

 took place some time after the group's final settlement 

 at St. Francis. As they gradually came into more 

 intimate relations with their western neighbors and 

 drifted into western Quebec, beyond the St. Lawrence, 

 their canoe building technique became influenced by 

 what they saw to the westward. As would be ex- 



pected, the St. Francis Abnaki began early to use nails 

 in canoe building, but, being expert workmen, they 

 retained the good features of the old sewn construction 

 to a marked degree up to the very end of birch-bark 

 canoe construction in southern Quebec, proi^ably 

 about 1915. It should perhaps be noted that what 

 has been discovered about the St. Francis Abnaki 

 canoes refers necessarily to only the last half of 

 the 19th century, since no earlier canoe of this group 

 has been discovered. The changes that took 

 place between the decline of the Penobscot style of 

 canoe and that of the later Abnaki remain a matter of 

 speculation. 



St. Francis-Abnaki Canoe 



Figure 85 ( 



93 



