978 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



LIVE OAK FOR SHIP KNEES 



This is a fair and fine specimen of the southern live oak of which the largest ship knees have been 

 made. This particular tree stands within the corporate limits of New Orleans and it is known locally as 

 the "dueling oak," leaving the imagination to conjure up whatever uncanny associations it will, ',o 

 account for the omnious name. 



about 1749. The dugout was the primitive ferryboat 

 almost everywhere in the eastern region before bridges 

 were built, and made travel on foot possible and assisted 

 the development of the country. As with the bark canoe, 

 the dugout is seeing its last days and has disappeared 

 except in a few remote districts where a relic may occa- 

 sionally be seen. A log 

 of suitable size and form 

 for an average dugout 

 would saw from 500 to 

 1000 feet of lumber. 

 Dugout canoes were 

 common in Europe in 

 very early times, as they 

 doubtless were in all 

 countries that had suit- 

 able timber. 

 The 



I l 



than after the dugout, though 



both shapes are retained in mod- 

 ern production. The Indian and 

 the white trapper made a frame 

 of light sticks and slats, and over 

 it they stretched the hark form- 

 ing the skin of the vessel. The 

 modern manufacturer makes a 

 frame of slats also, but he makes 

 the shell of his canoe of thin 

 lumber in place of bark, or he 

 may stretch waterproof canvas 

 over a frame and make a collap- 

 sible boat. The modern canoe is 

 a little more substantial than die 

 Indian's handiwork, but what the 

 modern canoe gains over its pro- 

 totype in substantiability it loses 

 in romance. "The forest life," 

 "with its mystery and magic," of 

 which Longfellow spoke in Hia- 

 watha, is not in the factory canoe 

 as it was in that made of cedar 

 slats, birch bark, and tamarack roots, by the wild hunters 

 of the wilderness. 



The bateau as formerly used in America was a flat- 

 bottomed boat whose chief business consisted in carrying 

 merchandise on the rivers and small lakes. The name 

 was applied rather loosely to boats of several kinds and 

 sizes ; but one of the earliest patterns was made by saw- 

 ing a dugout canoe down the middle from end to end, 

 separating the halves four or five feet, still leaving them 

 parallel, and nailing boards across to form a bottom. 

 Bateaus made in that way carried large loads and some- 

 times ventured out to sea for long cruises up and down 

 the coast. Fifty or sixty barrels of flour could be carried 

 at a single load. 



The bateau is not much spoken of by that name now, 

 but it has been modified, developed, and enlarged until it 



THE BARK OF WHICH CANOES 

 WERE MADE 



Indian 

 canoe was valu- 

 able in its days. 

 Form erly the 

 settler or hunter 

 went into the 

 woods with ax, 

 knife, and ad7, 

 and made his 

 canoe. Today 

 canoes-, and all 

 the light, small 

 boats developed 

 along the same lines, are factory made. The 

 manufacturer selects his wood as carefully as 

 ever the red hunter selected it, and he works it 

 more skilfully and turns out a handsomer prod- 

 uct. The light canoe which is now sold in sport- 

 ing stores is modeled after the bark canoe more 



Most Indian canoes i 

 were of thin sheets of 

 paper birch, stretched 

 of wood to hold it in 

 above picture shows a 

 bark. The long lines 

 are characteristic of this 

 not peculiar to it. Sim 

 may often be seen 



n the North 

 the bark of 

 over frames 

 shape. The 



sheet of this 

 in the bark 

 birch, though 



ilar markings 

 cherry bark. 



CALIFORNIA REDWOOD IN SHIPBUILDING 



This splendid steamship is the Seeandbee of the Cleveland and Buffalo Transit 

 Company. It is said to be the largest side-wheel ship in the world. The staterooms, 

 partitions, canvas-covered decks and some other parts are of redwood. The cut is 

 here shown by courtesy of the California Redwood Association. 



