60 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



in the shelter of this small stream ; it had been abandoned or forgotten 

 and, in the course of time, buried by the tides. 



On our second visit, a long plank was forced beneath the canoe end 

 (fig. 58). Bands of burlap sacking bound the frail hull to the plank 

 so the whole could be moved above the water level (fig. 59). When 

 sand and mud were washed away, the methods by which the old dug- 

 out had been made were at once apparent. A carefully selected pine 

 over 2 feet in diameter had been felled ; with fire and stone tools it had 

 been burned and gouged out to leave the thin shell before us. Evidence 

 of these alternating operations were unmistakable. There was no trace 

 whatsoever of steel axes or other European implements. In my mind 

 there is no question but that this fragment represents one of the canoes 

 characteristic of the Atlantic coast prior to arrival of Europeans. 



Safely above high tide, the canoe end was carefully boxed and 

 shipped to Washington. In an effort to preserve it after it reached 

 the National Museum, it was removed to the wood-treating laboratory 

 of the Washington Navy Yard. Here, under the supervision of 

 Lieut. M. E. Serat, the specimen was held for over two months under 

 controlled humidity and temperature. Gradually the temperature was 

 increased as the humidity was lowered, in the hope of drying the 

 spongy wood so that preservative could lie successfully applied. But, 

 despite every attention, the rotted pine warped and split to a con- 

 siderable degree. 



In its present condition, the canoe end measures 6 feet in length, 

 with a 2-foot beam ; it has a depth of 18 inches. The bow is rounded 

 and retreating as shown in the well-known John White paintings of 

 Indian dug-out canoes, made in the summer of 1585 and reproduced 

 by Theodore DeBry in 1590. 1 



It is quite possible that our Cumberland Island canoe was made and 

 used by the Timucuan Indians, who inhabited the Georgia and upper 

 Florida coasts during the sixteenth century. It is early historic, per- 

 haps pre-Spanish, in origin ; even in its present, fragmentary con- 

 dition, it is a noteworthy reminder of the aboriginal civilizations which 

 once flourished throughout our southeastern States. 



1 Bushnell, D. I., Jr., Virginia Mag. Hist, and Biogr., vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 419- 

 437, fig. 6, Oct., 1927. 



