﻿USES OF COMMERCIAL WOODS. 25 



pieces large enough for a canoe (as is done with Sitka spruce on the 

 northern Pacific coast), but in sections 4 or 5 feet long up and down 

 the trunk and as wide as the circumference of the tree. 1 A bark 

 canoe was very strong, and yet so yielding in all its parts that it 

 would stand shocks and blows which would immediately destroy a 

 small boat made of wood or metal. 2 



The birch canoe was not always made for long service. Sometimes 

 it was intended as a temporary makeshift, and in that case the bark 

 was stripped from the trunk in a section 10 or 15 feet long, the ends 

 were rolled up and tied to keep out the water, a few sticks were 

 inserted as cross braces, and the vessel was ready for the slight service 

 expected of it. 3 



The birch-bark canoe was never made and was seldom seen south 

 of the tree's --natural range, that is, New England and part of New 

 York, and westward near the Canadian border. The bark canoe is 

 to-day occasionally seen on the northern lakes and rivers, usually at 

 summer resorts. 



SHOE PEGS AND SHANKS. 



It is commonly thought that shoe pegs have nearly passed out of 

 use, but statistics of the manufacture of the article do not warrant 

 that belief. Eleven thousand cords of paper birch are made into 

 pegs and shanks yearly in New England. A small quantity of other 

 woods is used also. Shanks are small, flat pieces of wood inserted 

 between the soles under the arch of the foot. Joseph Walker, of 

 Massachusetts, perfected his machine for the manufacture of pegs 

 about 1818. It is not apparent that the " invention " of pegs marked 

 the beginning of their use, for it is claimed that handmade pegs were 

 well known before the introduction of Walker's machine. 



Two methods of manufacture are now employed in making pegs: 

 One cuts the bolt into blocks of requisite length, and splits out the 

 pegs; the other cuts sheets of rotary veneer the thickness of a peg, 

 and then splits and points them. The waste is large, for though a 

 shoe peg is about the smallest commodity manufactured of wood, it 

 can not be made of small pieces and scraps. The chief waste is due 

 to the rejection of entire defective logs and the heartwood of all 

 others. 



1 The bark canoes used for carrying raerchandise in Canada a century or more ago were 

 sometimes 48 feet long and 9 feet beam, and carried 8,000 pounds. — John Long's Travels, 

 London, 1791, Reported in Early Western Travels, R. G. Thwaites. 



2 Alexander Mackenzie hunted whales with a bark canoe. The animals were found at 

 the mouth of the Mackenzie River, having entered from the Arctic Ocean. He failed to 

 strike the game and concluded that it was probably for the best, as he was doubtful if the 

 canoe would have stood a blow from a whale's tail. 



3 " When they [the Indians] come to a river they presently patch up a canoe of birch 

 bark, cross over in it, and leave it on the river's bank if they think they shall not want 

 it ; otherwise, they carry it along with them."— John Oldmaxon's British Empire in 

 America, edited by Hermann Moll, London, 1708. 



6534°— Bull. 12—13 i 



