•^ 



Tetes de Boule Canoe. 



stitch. The top edge of the bark cover was brought 

 over the top of the main gunwales, as in the Malecite 

 canoes, and was secured by group wrappings passing 

 over the gunwales and outwales, under the caps. 

 These groups were not independent, the root thong 

 being carried from group to group outside the bark in 

 a long pass under the outwales. The groups of seven 

 to nine turns were roughly an inch apart in many 

 small canoes, and perhaps 1 H inches in the large craft. 

 In the last birch-bark canoes in which no nails or 

 tacks were used, wrappings of root thongs began with 

 a stop knot, but this does not appear to have been 

 the earlier practice. 



The Tetes de Boule canoes had inside stem-pieces 

 split, according to the size of the canoe, in four to six 

 laminations and lashed with a bark or root thong 

 in an open spiral in some canoes but close-wxapped in 

 others. The stem-piece was as in the Malecite canoes, 

 except that it ended under the rail cap, and did not 

 pass through it as in the Eastern canoes; the heel was 

 notched to receive the heel of the headboard. The 

 bark was usually lashed through the stem, as in the 

 Malecite construction. However, in some Tetes de 

 Boule canoes, the stem close to the heel was not 

 laminated and the bark was lashed to the solid part 

 by an in-and-out stitch passing through closely spaced 

 holes drilled in the stem piece. Above this, the lashing 

 was the usual spiral which, in at least a few instances, 

 was passed through the bark just inboard of the stem 

 piece. Near the top of the stem the lashings some- 

 times were rather widely spaced and passed inboard 



of the stem-pieces; at other times, however, these 

 lashings were more closely spaced and passed through 

 the stem. 



Ordinarily, at the ends of the canoe no wulegessis, or 

 covers of bark, were used under the gunwale caps, 

 although in one example examined a small cover had 

 been inserted over the gunwale ends and under the 

 caps, it did not extend below the outwales to form a 

 wulegessis. In some canoes the bark cover was pieced 

 up at the peak of the stems by a panel whose bottom 

 faired into the bottom of the side panels. 



A variety of methods was used to fit the gunwale 

 caps at the ends of the canoe. Some builders carried 

 the cap out beyond the gunwale ends, flat, over the 

 edges of the bark cover and the top face of the out- 

 wale, but others tilted the cap outboard and down- 

 ward. The ends of the caps came flush with the face 

 of the stems. In an apparently late variation, the 

 gunwales, instead of ending in the half-arrowhead, 

 were snied ofT the inside and a triangular block was 

 inserted between the ends. The gunwales were then 

 pegged or nailed to the block and the whole secured 

 with a root wrapping around them, before the out- 

 wales were in place. The first turn began by passing 

 the root through a hole in the block near its inboard 

 end, with a stop knot in the root. 



The ends of the gunwales were supported by a 

 narrow headboard sharply bellied toward the end of 

 the canoe. The top of the headboard was notched to 

 stand under the main gunwales; the center portion 

 often was carried high and ended with a cylindrical 



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