^"K??- 



^- ,«' ;^ 



MONTAGNAIS Crooked Canoe. (Canadian Cioloi^iijl Siiiiij photo.] 



and aft, with some lift near the ends and a correspond- 

 ing amount of sheer. Between these was a hybrid 

 which had some fore-and-aft rocker in the bottom 

 and a very moderate sheer. Not until the 1870's 

 was any detailed examination made of the canoes in 

 this area; then it appeared that the crooked canoe 

 might be the tribal model of the eastern Cree only, 

 while the Nascapee employed a straight-bottom 

 model, but it is possible that the examination was 

 limited and that Nascapee use of the crooked canoe 

 was simply not observed. By 1900, however, the 

 crooked model was in use not only by the eastern 

 Cree and the Nascapee but also by the Montagnais. 



In the area around Fort Chimo and at the northern 

 ranges of the eastern Cree and of the Montagnais 

 the lack of good birch bark made it necessary to make 

 up the bark cover out of many small pieces. This 

 not only was laborious but made a rough and rather 

 unsightly cover. Hence, some of the northern 

 builders, particularly the Nascapee, substituted spruce 

 bark, which was available in quite large sheets. 

 The use of the spruce bark, however, did not cause 

 any of these people to depart markedly from the model 

 or the method of constructing birch-bark canoes, 

 as it did for the Indians in the maritime area. 



At the time (1908) when Adney was carefully observ- 

 ing the canoes in this area he found that both crooked 

 and straight-bottom canoes were being used by all 

 three tribal groups, but with a variation in midsection 

 form among individual builders. Both types were 

 built with a midsection that had a wide bottom and 



vertical sides, or, as an alternative, a narrow bottom 

 and flaring sides. The end profile of all these canoes 

 showed chin. In some crooked canoes the profile was 

 apparently an arc of a circle, but in most canoes the 

 form was an irregular curve. The stem met the 

 gunwale in a marked peak rounded very slightly 

 at the head, as the result of the method by which the 

 stem was constructed, but in the hybrid model used 

 by the Nascapee the ends were low and not much 

 peaked and the quick upward rise of the sheer near 

 the ends was lacking. In cross section all these 

 canoes became V-shaped close to the ends, regardless 

 of the midsection form. For the straight-bottom 

 canoe and in the hybrid form this resulted in very 

 sharp level lines, but the very great rocker of the 

 crooked canoe brought the ends well above the normal 

 line of flotation, so that this type was quite full-ended 

 at the level line in spite of the V-section. 



It is apparent upon examining the crooked canoe 

 that there was actually less variation in its form, in 

 spite of differences in midsection shape, than in that 

 of the straight-bottom canoe, owing to its very great 

 depth amidships in proportion to its width. This 

 proportion made necessary a very moderate flare in 

 in the narrow-bottom midsection and resulted in a 

 rather wall-sided appearance, even in this model. 

 The hybrid form, which fell between the extremes of 

 the crooked canoe and the straight-bottom canoe, 

 had a narrow-bottomed flaring-sided midsection, and 

 its relatively moderate depth made obvious the flare in 

 the topsides and thus created a distinctive model. 



100 



