BARK CANOES. 403 



the same materials, and differ only in size and shape. 

 The Micmac canoe has high bows and stern, with gun- 

 wale raised amidships to throw off the sea. These canoes, 

 when well handled, will stand as much sea as any open 

 boat, and in a short, chopping sea are perhaps drier. 

 Their extreme length is about 22 feet, beam 3 feet, and 

 weight 115 Ibs. They are paddled and "portaged" by 

 two men, one at each end. In smooth water a Micmac 

 canoe will carry 15 cwt. of a load with perfect safety. 

 The Milicete canoe is as long, or nearly so, as the Mic- 

 mac; it is much lower and narrower, and the lines are 

 finer. Inferior to the other in sea-going qualities, it is 

 admirably adapted for lake and river navigation, and 

 although capable of carrying four men (or weight equiva- 

 lent), is so light that an Indian thinks nothing of throwing 

 it on his shoulders and carrying it for 2 or 3 miles at a 

 stretch. In old times I have heard that it was not unusual 

 to " portage " canoes in one day from the head of the 

 'St. John to the St. Lawrence, a distance of 18 miles ; and 



I myself have seen an Indian " portage " his canoe 



II miles through the woods. In " portaging," the centre 

 bar of the canoe rests on the back and shoulder. 



The canoes of the nor'-west are very much larger than 

 the above, and are capable of carrying eight or ten men 

 and a large load ; they are sometimes as much as 

 6 fathoms in length, but they are made exactly in the 

 same way and out of the same materials as the above. 



The log canoes are about 30 feet in length by 22 inches 

 in width, and are made out of a single pine tree. I have 

 seen good rough canoes on which no other tool but an axe 

 had ever been laid ; for the world cannot produce better 



