A Fleet of 51 Birch-Bark Canoes of the Tgtes de Boule Indians, assembled 

 at the Hudson's Bay Company post, Grand Lake Victoria, Procession Sunday, 

 August 1895. {Photo, Post-Factor L. A. Christopherson.) 



For construction of the Tetes de Boule canoe, which 

 was marked by good structural design and neat work- 

 manship, the building bed was slightly raised at mid- 

 length, as was the general practice of the St. Francis 

 builders. The building frame was usually about 6 

 inches less in width amidships, inside to inside, than 

 were the gunwales, and from 15 to 18 inches shorter. 

 The building frame was made quite sharp toward the 

 ends so that, viewed from above, it rather approached 

 a diamond form; this produced the very sharp lines 

 that are to be seen in many examples of the Tetes de 

 Boule canoes. The building frame was of course 

 removed from the canoe as soon as the gunwales were 

 in place and the bark cover lashed to them. 



The gunwale structure, comprised of main gunwale 

 members, caps, and outwales, was the same as in the 

 Malecite canoes. The main gunwales were rectangu- 

 lar in cross-section, some being almost square, with 

 the lower outboard corner bevelled off. Compared 

 to those of eastern canoes of equal length, the main 

 gunwales were unusually light; their depth and width 

 rarely exceeded 1 inch, and in very small hunter's 

 canoes these were often only about ^4 inch. Toward 

 the ends, they tapered to )i inch, or even slightly 

 less. The ends of the main gunwales, usually of 

 the common half-arrowhead form, were held together 



by rawhide or root thongs passed back and forth 

 through horizontal holes in the members. After 

 being thus lashed together, they were securely 

 wrapped with thongs which usually went over gun- 

 wales and outwales and through the bark cover. 



The gunwale caps, also light, were usually between 

 Yi and li inch thick and from 1 to 1^2 inches wide. At 

 the ends they were tapered in width and thickness, 

 often to Yii by Y^ inch, so as to follow the quickly rising 

 sheer there. The ends of the gunwales, caps, and out- 

 wales required hot-water treatment to obtain the 

 required curve of the sheer. The caps were pegged to 

 the gunwales and were secured at each end with two 

 or three groups of lashings which passed around the 

 outwales as well, and through the bark cover. 



The outwales were likewise light battens between 

 Yi and Yi inch thick and from % to \Yi inches deep, the 

 depth near the ends being tapered to f^ to % inch so as 

 to sheer correctly. 



The bark cover had four or five vertical gores on 

 each side of the middle thwart, the gore nearest each 

 stem being commonly well inboard of the end thwarts. 

 The side panels were usually deep amidships and 

 narrowed toward the ends. A root batten was used 

 under the stitching of the longitudinal seams of the 

 side panels, which were sewn with a harness-maker's 



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