EXTRACTS. 267 



difference is so very slight as not be discernible by the eye, which will be clearly 

 comprehended on recollecting that the side, as I before said, begins at the keel. 

 The coat, or shell, of the canoe is made of the largest and fairest sheets of birch 

 bark that can be procured, its form being nothing more than two sides joined 

 together, where the keel is to be introduced. It is very easily sewn together 

 entire. The sewing is perfectly neat, and performed with spruce roots, split to 

 the proper size. The portion along the gunwale is like our neatest basket-work. 

 The seams are payed over with a sort of gum, which appears to be a preparation 

 of turpentine, oil, and red ochre, which eftectually resists all the effects of the 

 water. The sides are kept apart, and their proper distance preserved, by means 

 of a thwart of about the thickness of two fingers, whose ends are looped on the 

 rising points above mentioned in the middle of the gunwale. The extension 

 caused when this thwart is introduced lessens in some des-ree the lenslh of the 

 canoe by drawing in still more its curling ends ; it also fixes the extreme breadth 

 in the middle, which is requisite in a vessel having similar stems, and intended 

 for advancing with either of them foremost, as occasion may require, and by 

 bulging out their sides gives them a perceptible convexity, much more beautiful 

 than their first form. The gunwales are made with taj)ering sticks, two on each 

 side, the thick ends of which meet on the rising points of the main thwart, and, 

 being moulded to the shape of the canoe, their smaller ends terminate with those 

 of the keel rod in the extremities of each stem. On the outside of the proper 

 gunwales, with which they exactly correspond, and connected with them by a few 

 thongs, are also false gunwales, fixed there for the purpose of fenders. The 

 inside is lined entirely with sticks, or ribs, two or three inches broad, cut flat 

 and thin, and placed lengthwise, over which again others are crossed, which, 

 being bent in the middle, extend up each side to the gunwale, where they are 

 secured, serving as timbers. A shut thwart near each end, to prevent the canoe 

 from twisting or being bulged more open than proper, makes it complete. It 

 may readily be conceived, from its form and light fabric, that, being put into the 

 water, it would lie fiat on one side, with the keel and gunwale both at the surface, 

 but, being ballasted with stones, it settles down to a proper depth in the water, 

 and then swims upright, when a covering of sods and moss being laid on the 

 stones, the Indians kneel on them, and manage the canoe with paddles. In fine 

 weather they sometimes set a sail on a very slight mast, fastened to the middle 

 thwart, but this is a practice for which their delicate and unsteady barks are by 

 no means calculated. A canoe about fourteen feet long is about four feet wide 

 in the middle." (Page 26, etc.). 



Be Laet {Joannes): Novvs Orhis seu Bescriptionis Indice Occidentalis Lihri 

 XVIII; Lvcjil. Bat., 7^55.— Translation : [The inhabitants of Newfoundland, 

 their condition and manners]. " Their boats are made of the bark of trees, at 



