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Athabascan Hunting Canoes of the Kayak Form, showing charac- 

 teristic hull shape. These canoes were light, handy, and fast. 



uous, but in the Mackenzie models the lashings were 

 in groups. Inwales and outwales in all the kayak 

 forms ran to the stem-pieces, which were plank-on- 

 edge of a thickness that varied according to tribal 

 practice. No headboards were employed. The gun- 

 wale members were rectangular in cross-section and 

 were bent square with the flare of the sides. The 

 ends sometimes were swelled and rounded, and in the 

 bateau variation the gunwales, in cross section, 

 appear to have been rounded. Six thwarts appear 

 in most of the kayak forms but the Loucheux model 

 had five and the bateau variation seems to have had 

 but three. 



Reinforcing bark was placed under the outwales in 

 all Mackenzie Basin canoes, but not in the Alaskan or 

 in the bateau variation. The ribs in all these canoes 

 were small, usually about Yi inch square, and widely 

 spaced, about 9 to 14 inches on centers. No ribs were 

 placed in the rake of the ends. The ends of the ribs 

 were chisel-pointed and were forced between the in- 

 wale and outwale, against the inside of the bark cover. 

 In some canoes, however, the ribs near the ends of the 

 canoe were forced into short splits on the underside 

 of the inwale. The thwart ends might also be forced 

 into short splits on the inside face of the inwales or 

 might be tenoned there; in any case a single lashing 

 was used at the thwart ends. Thwarts were parallel- 

 sided in plan and slightly tapered toward the ends 

 in elevation; no shoulders were used. In the bateau 



variation, a heavy thwart was placed directly under 

 the middle thwart with its ends against the side 

 battens, apparently to act as a spreader. Each end 

 was notched over the side battens and was held by 

 two lashings to the bottom crosspiece below it. This 

 structure was probably made necessary by the fragile 

 construction of this form of canoe. In all kayak 

 forms there was no complete sheathing — the one, two, 

 or three narrow battens to a side above the chine 

 were held in place only by the sprung ribs (without 

 lashings); in the bateau form, however, the side 

 batten was lashed to each frame after the manner of 

 of an Eskimo sea kayak. 



The characteristic detail in the structure of the bark 

 kayak-canoe, including the bateau variation, was the 

 bottom framing. It was variously formed, according 

 to tribal designation. The bottom framing was made 

 up of five or six longitudinal battens (four in one 

 extinct form of canoe). In the Yukon canoes six 

 rectangular battens, all of about the same cross section, 

 were used with the narrow edge outboard. These 

 battens were held rigidly to form by thin crosspieces, 

 or splints, about )\ by 1 inch forced athwartships 

 through short splits in the battens and pegged at the 

 ends on the chine battens. The ends of the four inner 

 longitudinals were cut ofl^ on the snye to bear on the 

 inside face of the chine battens (in some instances 

 they were cut short of this) . The chine ends were bev- 

 eled together or lashed to the sides of the stem-pieces. 



160 



