152 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 59 



" a great number of skin canoes rowing from the south past the cape, 

 so numerous that it looked as if coals had been scattered broadcast 

 out before the bay," for they had come to trade and to feel safe in 

 trading ; thirdly, " a great multitude of Skrelling boats approaching 

 from the south as if a stream were pouring down." 



There may be no significance in the substitution of Skrelling for 

 " skin " in the third mention. As they mistook paddling for rowing 

 unless the saga-man, centuries after the occurrence, changed the 

 words perhaps we ought not to be very certain about such a detail. 

 They had seen at least fragments of skin-covered boats in Greenland, 

 as we know from Ari and Thorkel Gellison, 1 and may have been 

 predisposed to assume identity of covering in two articles not unlike 

 at a distance, or even very near, as Dr. Storm has suggested. A 

 dark-tinted birch-bark-covered canoe, such as I have seen on the 

 shore of Lake Superior, might well be taken for one covered with 

 equally dark and smooth porpoise hide or cured sealskin or the pre- 

 pared and hairless skin of any marine animal, especially by a man who 

 expected the latter and was uncritical in distinguishing. Moreover the 

 saga-man would remember the hide-covered boats of Ireland and other 

 European countries, but would never think of tree-bark as a probable 

 covering material. He might even suppose that he was making 

 a strictly necessary correction by such a change. Indeed both cover- 

 ings are really skins, animal or vegetable. The name " woodskin " 

 is still commonly applied to the bullet-tree bark boats in use on the Es- 

 sequibo River. Mr. Kirke's Twenty-five Years in British Guiana 2 

 presents a neat parallel (by reversal) to an error of observation such 

 as Dr. Storm suggests in this case. It appears that a " woodskin," be- 

 ing suddenly lifted from the water, was taken for an alligator or some 

 other animal, hide and all, creating a brief panic, which even the 

 Indian boatman shared. So, vegetable skin has been and may be 

 mistaken for animal ; then why not animal for vegetable ? and what 

 is there in the bark of the " black birch," more than in that of the 

 rubber tree, to secure immunity from mistake ? It may be that many 

 people, considering the matter, have the pretty delicate bark of the 

 white paper birch in mind ; but that would not answer. Indeed, no 

 bark is so good as some woven fabrics, and the Passamaquoddy at 

 least have now generally accepted the latter as canoe-covering ; for 

 the Indian is not so hopelessly unadaptable as he is painted. 



1 G. Storm : Studies on the Vinelancl Voyages. 



2 Page 466. 



