deep at heel of stem, and 16 inches at heel of stempost. 

 Height of the stem was 29 inches, of the stern 30}^ 

 inches, the after rake was 38 inches, and the fore rake 

 40)^ inches. The canoe had no decks and was rather 

 sharp-ended. 



The kayak-form canoe of the Athabascan Loucheux 

 had a rigid bottom-frame; the bottom was flat 

 athwartships and it had no fore-and-aft rocker. The 

 sides were flaring and slightly curved. Both ends 

 were alike, and the canoe was unusual in having only 

 five thwarts, with one amidships. The stem was 

 short in rake and curved; the stem profile came out of 

 the bottom line in a fair, quick curve which became 

 vertical at a height of little more than two-thirds the 

 depth amidships of the canoe. The height of the 

 stem was almost twice the midship depth. Between 

 the end thwarts the sheer was straight, thence it 

 swept upward in a gradually sharpening curve to the 

 inboard stems; the inwale ends stood vertical on the 

 face of the stem, with their ends brought to the top of 

 the stem-head. The stem-pieces were of unusually 

 thick plank, with the head broadened and the cut- 

 water part outside the bark cover sharpened until 

 near the head, where it gradually became as wide as 

 inboard. The gunwales were lashed with continuous 

 turns, as in the Alaskan canoes. In plan, the gun- 

 wales and bottom, frame were full-ended and convex. 

 These canoes were decked equally at both ends. The 

 deck extended inboard far enough to just cover the 

 end thwart, to which, in the example seen, it was 

 lashed with four simple in-and-out passes of rawhide 

 thong. The chine-pieces of the bottom were lashed 

 to the sides of the stem-pieces. The covering was 

 birch bark. Two battens on each side were employed 

 with the usual six longitudinals in the bottom frame. 

 These canoes were well-built and their ends resemble 

 those of the seagoing kayaks used at the mouth of the 

 Mackenzie, but these for at least the last 70 years of 

 their use were round-bottomed. The Loucheux 

 canoes were small, usually about 15 feet long, 30 

 inches wide, and about 12 inches deep amidships. 



The Chipewyan kayak-form canoe was of loose- 

 batten bottom frame construction, with its beam 

 well aft of amidships. Its bottom was slightly rounded 

 athwartships, with a slight rocker fore-and-aft; the 

 sides flared outward and were nearly straight; and 

 the turn of the bilge was almost angular. The bow 

 and stern were of the same general shape; the end 

 profile came out of the bottom line with a quick hard 

 curve and then fell outboard in a long sweep that 

 gradually straightened near the head. The rakes were 



short, however, and the stem was noticeably lower 

 than the stern, the difference being as much as 6 

 inches in some canoes. The sheer was nearly straight 

 to the end thwarts and thence it curved up in an 

 easy sweep to the ends of the canoe. The canoes were 

 markedly deeper at the stern than at the bow; the 

 diflTerence being as much as IJ^ inches in some 

 examples. 



This kayak-form was very sharp-ended; the gun- 

 wales in plan often showed a slight hollow and the 

 chine members came to the posts in an almost straight 

 V. As a result, the end ribs were often intentionally 

 "broken" to form a narrow-based, angular U. In 

 some Eskimo-built kayak forms, a similar result in 

 hull section was obtained in the endmost frames by 

 stepping short struts in splits, or tenons, on top of 

 the chine members and on the underside of the main 

 gunwales. This construction was occasionally found 

 in some of the lower Yukon kayak forms. The 

 Chipewyan kayak forms were decked at both ends. 

 The fore deck was slightly more than one-fourth the 

 length of the canoe and extended inboard to the sec- 

 ond thwart; the after deck was about one-tenth, and 

 came inboard to the end thwart. No breakwater 

 batten or bark was employed. There were two battens 

 on the sides, above the bilges. 



The gunwale wrappings were in groups. The bark 

 cover was not folded over the top of the inner gunwale 

 but, as usual in the Northwest canoes, was trimmed 

 evenly with the top of the inwale and outwale. Re- 

 inforcing bark along the gunwales extended downward 

 about I'/i inches below the bottom of the outwales 

 amidships and about 1 inch at the ends. Of the 

 bottom longitudinals, the keel and chine-pieces were 

 roughly rectangular in cross-section, laid on the flat, 

 and the intermediate two battens were round; the 

 ends of the keel piece were merely butted against 

 the stems, no lashing being used. The stem piece 

 was thick plank and was sharpened outside the bark 

 cover to form a cutwater. The stem lashing was of 

 the usual two-thong form, and a batten was used 

 in the longitudinal seams of the bark cover. The 

 thwarts, six in number, were tenoned through both 

 inwale and outwale and pegged between them. No 

 thwart lashings were used. The decks often were 

 not lashed into place, being held only by the curling 

 of the edges of the bark sheets. 



This canoe was a very good one; it was light and 

 was fitted to the owner's build. In size it would be 

 between 12 and 14 feet long and 20 and 24 inches 

 wide over the gunwales, and the width of bottom 



166 



