brigade of four of these canoes would thus carry 

 roughly 12 short tons of goods. 



The Company would send one brigade after an- 

 other, at close intervals of time, until the whole 

 seasonal movement was in progress. Those brigades 

 going the greatest distance were started first. Al- 

 though cargoes left the coast from early spring on to 

 late summer, the great canoe movement took place 

 towards the fall. Canoe travel north and north- 

 westward from the Great Lakes had to be carefully 

 timed, as goods had to be accumulated at the base 

 posts on the Lakes and the brigades placed in move- 

 ment at the last safe date which would permit them 

 to reach their destination before the first hard freeze- 

 up. The base posts were those where the run of the 

 mailre canot ended and that of the canot du nord began, 

 the places where reloading for the individual trading 

 posts in the Northland was necessary. The late 

 start was usually desirable in order to await the 

 arrival at the base posts of all the goods required, for 

 movements of freight were uncertain before the days 

 of railroads and steamers. 



In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, before 

 the whole canoe trade fell under the control of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company, it was the custom to distrib- 

 ute 8 gallons of rum to each canoe for consumption 

 during the run, and it was also the custom for all 



hands to see how much of this they could drink before 

 starting out. This grandiose undertaking usually 

 began as soon as the local priest, who gave his blessing 

 to the canoemen, had left the scene. The magnificent 

 drunk lasted one day and the ne.xt morning the crew 

 had to be underway. The first day's run, old accounts 

 repeatedly show, not only was short l:)ut was often 

 beset by difficulties. 



The era of the bark trading canoe did not close 

 with a dramatic change. Its ending was a long, slow 

 process. By the last decade of the 19th century the 

 bark trading canoe had disappeared from most of 

 the old routes, and even in the Northwest it had been 

 almost wholly displaced by York boats, scows, 

 bateaux, and canvas or wooden canoes of white-man 

 construction. By the beginning of the first World 

 War, the mailre canals and canots du nord were finished, 

 except as curiosities — hardly even as these, for not 

 one was preserved in a museum. 



Indeed, so complete was the disappearance of the 

 fur-trade canoe that any attempt to record its design, 

 construction, and fitting would have been almost 

 hopeless, had it not been for the notes, sketches, and 

 statements of such men as L. A. Christopherson, 

 aided by a few models and pictures, and for the 

 memories of a few Indian builders who had worked 

 on the canoes. 



Decorations: Fur-trade Canoes. {W'atercolor sketch by Adneji.) 



153 



