Jia/r in Feef 



t^ufenai Canoe 

 Zfn^/h ovfrcM// /S'-4' , oyer ^unwa/ej /O'Jj' 

 Seam ^si ' . rnjft^e ou/itva/e/ ^■f ' 

 Orpfh /^- ^ 



/et/ton a/on^/feJe /rc/ion a/ Thwar/ 



Figure 154 



Bark Canoe of the Kutenai and Shuswap, about average in size and propor- 

 tion. Original in the Museum of the American Indian, New York. 



small light ribs were sometimes placed there, with 

 their heads caught in the closure lashing of the end. 

 The canoes had 3-part gunwales consisting of inwale, 

 outwale, and cap, but in many the arrangement of 

 these was such that this nomenclature is misleading. 

 In the latter construction, a lower inwale was used, as 

 in the above drawing; rather small in cross section, 

 it was almost .square, with rounded edges. The rib 

 ends, after passing through slits in the bark cover 

 below the lower inwale, continued upward past it, 

 outside the bark cover. Above the lower inwale and 

 inside the bark cover was a larger upper inwale; 

 this was flat on the outboard and bottom sides, the 

 top and inboard sides being rounded into one another. 

 The outwale, roughly rectangular in cross section, 

 clamped the bark cover and heads of the ribs between 

 it and the upper inwale. The ribs and bark were 

 trimmed ofT flush with the tops of the outwale and up- 

 per inwale. The thwart amidships was caught, at the 

 ends, between the lower and upper inwales. The gun- 

 wale members and bark cover were secured by group 

 lashings of small extent and rather widely spaced. 



The methods of fitting the thwarts differed in this 

 class of canoe, and it cannot be determined with cer- 

 tainty whether this variation was tribal or the choice 

 of the individual builder. In canoes having the lower 

 inwale arrangement there was but one thwart amid- 

 ships. As has been said, its ends were caught between 

 the upper and lower inwales. Directly beneath it 

 was a rib whose head was not brought up outside 

 the bark cover but, after being secured to the upper- 

 most sheathing batten, was brought around inboard 

 in a quick hard turn and secured along the underside 

 of the thwart with a close spiral lashing. Under this 

 rib at the topmost batten was secured a short false 

 rib head by forcing the beveled foot of the false rib 

 between the batten and the true rib, after lashing; 

 the head of the false rib was then brought up through 

 and outside the bark cover in the customary manner, 

 or it might be forced under the lower inwale, inside 

 the bark cover. In this construction, the endmost 

 ribs were at the gunwale ends, and the heads of these 

 were lashed to the stem battens outside the gunwale 

 ends, on the outside of the bark cover. 



169 



