530 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1899. 



He is sure that when the canoes are first finished they are as straight 

 as an arrow along the bottom. After one has been used awhile the 

 ends turn up more or less, according to the weight put into them. 

 The Indians, after using one, take it out of the water to dry and this 

 has a tendency to draw up the points. 



The Rev. Joseph M. Caruana, S. J., gives the following general 

 measurements of the pointed canoe (in Salishan languages, tlie or thlie)^ 

 in use among the Lakes or Snaichisti Indians, in Stevens County, 



Fig. 2. 



POINTED CANOE OF THE LAKE INDIANS, WASHINGTON. 



Washington: length, 24: feet; width, 4 feet; depth, 2i feet; paddle, 6 

 feet; poles, used perpendicularly in strong currents, 6 feet; mat in 

 bottom to kneel on while paddling, 3 by 4: feet. The same writer says 

 that in 1862 pointed canoes were in great use among the Spokane and 

 Coeur d'Alene tribes, as well as the Colville, or Sgoyelpy, and Kalispel. 

 He crossed many a river on such bark canoes while living among the 

 Coeur d'Alene or Szchizue Indians. These canoes held two persons 

 with luggage. The bottoms were flat and the ends somewhat turned 



Fig. 3. 

 DETAIL OF THE LAKE INDIAN CANOE, WASHINGTON. 



up. They were fragile and swift. The Indians had no tradition and 

 could give no account of their origin. The canoes examined by Father 

 Caruana had ribs of white cedar, very light and pliable, and bound to 

 the horizontal framework with split cedar roots or willow twigs. The 

 ribs are pointed at the top and do not reach the gunwale, but are forced 

 through the bark and covered in. The chinks are well pitched, espe- 

 cially at the two ends. Mr. Kent, of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, describes 

 one of the canoes as 14 feet long, weighing 50 pounds. 



Fig. 2 is of a model of the pointed canoe of the Lake Indians, made 



