EXTRACTS. 309 



ficiently thick to give the required width, they spring the top of the sides apart, 

 in the middle of the canoe, by steaming the wood. The inside is filled with water 

 which is heated by means of red-hot stones, and a slow fire is made on the out- 

 side by rows of bark laid on the ground, a short distance off, but near enough 

 to warm the cedar without burning it. This renders the wood very flexible in a 

 short time, so that the sides can be opened from six to twelve inches. The canoe 

 is now strengthened, and kept in form by sticks or stretchers, similar to a boat's 

 thwarts. The ends of these stretchers are fastened with withes made from taper- 

 ing cedar limbs, twisted, and used instead of cords, and the water is then emptied 

 out ; this process is not often employed, however, the log being usually sufficiently 

 wide in the first instance. As the projections for the head and stern pieces can- 

 not be cut from the log, they are carved from separate pieces and fastened on by 

 means of withes and wooden pegs. A very neat and peculiar scarf is' used in 

 joining these pieces to the body of the canoe, and the parts are fitted together in 

 a simple and effectual manner. First the scarf is made on the canoe ; this is 

 rubbed over with grease and charcoal ; next the jiiece to be fitted is hewn as 

 nearly like the scarf as the eye can guide, and applied to the part which has the 

 grease on it. It is then removed, and the inequalities being at once discovered 

 and chipped off with the chisel, the process is repeated until the whole of the 

 scarf or the piece to be fitted is uniform 1}^ marked with the blackened grease. 

 The joints are by this method perfectly matched, and so neat as to be water-tight 

 without any calking. The head and stern pieces being fastened on, the whole of 

 the inside is then chipped over again, and the smaller and more indistinct the 

 chisel marks are, the better the workmanship is considered. 



Fig. 371. — Makah canoe showing method of scarfing. 



" Until very recently it was the custom to ornament all canoes, except the 

 small ones, with rows of the pearly valve of a species of sea-snail. These shells 

 are procured in large quantities at Nittinat and Clyoquot, and formerly were in 

 great demand as an article of traffic. They are inserted in the inside of the 

 edge of the canoe by driving them into holes bored to receive them. But at 

 present they are not much used by the Makahs, for the reason, I presume, that 

 they are continually trading off their canoes, and find they bring quite as good 

 a price without these ornaments as with them. I have noticed, however, among 

 some of the Clallams, who are apt to keep a canoe much longer than the Makahs, 

 that the shell ornaments are still used. When the canoe is finished, it is 



