MANUFACTURE OF INDIAN CANOES. 163 



of the external layers of its bark become most striking, 

 the weatherside of each tree appearing as if coated 

 by a covering of the purest driven snow, while the 

 mottled surface of the remaining portions are flecked 

 with every conceivable shade of grey, brown, and 

 black, all of the most brilliant hues of their kind, 

 and often appear highly polished, as if by some 

 artificial process. 



As regards the manufacture of birch bark canoes, 

 they are made by almost all the northern forest tribes 

 to the eastwards of the Rocky Mountains, but the 

 canoes of the Chippeways have generally been regarded 

 as the ne plus ultra of artistic design, and Catlin in 

 his standard work on the red man (though his largest 

 experiences were among the prairie Indians) gives it 

 as his opinion that: 



" the Chippeway canoe is perhaps the most beautiful and 

 lightest model of all the water crafts that ever were invented " 

 and he states that " they are generally made complete with 

 the rind of one tree" (the Betula Papyracea, as we have 

 before observed) " and so ingeniously shaped and sewed 

 together, with the roots of the tamarack, that they are water- 

 tight, and ride upon the waters as light as a cork." * 



According to Captain Levinge, the bark is best 

 obtained in the winter months, and a fire is applied 

 to make the tree peel freely, f As regards this, we 

 are in some doubt, as trees are known to peel more 

 freely when the sap is up than at any other time ; and 

 Catlin says it is removed from the trees by the Indians 

 in summer. But however that may be, there can be 



* The North American Indians, by George Catlin; Edition of 1857, 

 Vol. ii., p. 138. 



f Echoes from the Back-woods, by Captain R. G. A. Levinge, 1849, 

 Vol. i., p. lib. 



Ibid., Catlin's Indians, Vol. ii. 



