Fur-Trade Canoes 



Of all birch-bark canoe forms, the most famous 

 were the canots du maitre, or maitre canots (also called 

 north canoes, great canoes, or rabeskas), of the great 

 fur companies of Canada. These large canoes were 

 developed early, as we have seen in the French 

 colonial records, and remained a vital part of the fur 

 trade until well toward the very end of the 19th 

 century — two hundred years of use and development 

 at the very least. A comprehensive history of the 

 Canadian and American fur trade is yet to be written; 

 when one appears it will show that the fur trade could 

 not have existed on a large scale without the great 

 mattre canot of birch bark. It will also have to show 

 that the early exploration of the north country was 

 largely made possible by this carrier. In fact, the 

 great canoes of the Canadian fur trade must be 

 looked upon as the national watercraft type, histori- 

 cally, of Canada and far more representative of the 

 great years of national expansion than the wagon, 

 truck, locomotive, or steamship. 



Little has survived concerning the form and con- 

 struction of the early French-colonial fur-trade canoes. 

 Circumstantial evidence leads to the conclusion 

 that the model was a development, an enlargement 



perhaps, of the Algonkin form of high-ended canoe as 

 described on pages 113 to 116. The early French came 

 into contact with these trilxrsmen before they met 

 the Great Lakes Ojibway, the other builders of the 

 high-ended model. It is known that the Indians 

 first supplied large canoes to the French governmental 

 and church authorities and that when this source of 

 canoes proved insufficient, the canoe factory at 

 Trois Rivieres was set up and a standard size (probably 

 a standard model as well) came into existence. As 

 the fur trade expanded, large canoes may well have 

 been built elsewhere by the early French; we know at 

 least that building spread westward and northward 

 after Canada became a British possession. 



In the rise of the great canoe of the fur trade, the 

 basic model was no doubt maintained through the 

 method of training its builders. The first French 

 engaged in bark-canoe building learned the tech- 

 niques, let us say, from the original Indian builders, 

 the Algonkin. As building moved westward, the 

 first men sent to the new posts to build canoes ap- 

 parently came from the French-operated canoe 

 factory. It would be reasonable to expect that as 

 building increased in the west, local modifications 

 would be patterned on canoes from around the build- 

 ing post, but that the basic model would remain. This 

 may account for the departures from the true Ojib- 

 way-Algonkin canoes .seen in the maitre canots. 



Majfrr Conof 



Inboard Profile of a 6-Fathom Fur-Trade Canoe, and details of construc- 

 tion, fitting, and decoration. 



135 



