CANOES 21 



biggest, soundest, and smoothest birch tree in 

 his neighbourhood. He prefers to strip it in 

 the early summer, when the bark is supple with 

 the sap. Sap is as good for the bark as it is 

 bad for the woodwork of canoes and every 

 other kind of craft. The soft inside of the 

 bark is always scraped as clean as a tanner 

 scrapes a hide. If the Indian has to build 

 with dry or frozen bark he is careful to use 

 hot water in stripping the trunk, and he warms 

 the bark again for working. Of course, it is 

 a great advantage to have as few strips as 

 possible, since every seam must first be sewn 

 together by the squaws and then gummed 

 over. Occasionally a tree will be found big 

 and suitable enough to yield a single strip 

 from which a seamless twenty-footer can be 

 built. But this is very rare. 



The next thing is the frame — the gunwale, 

 ribs, and cross-bars. Where many canoes 

 are building there is generally some sort of 

 model round which the ribs are bent. But a 

 skilled Indian can dispense with any model 

 when making the ribs with every requisite 

 degree of curve, from the open ribs amid- 

 ships, where the bottom is nearly flat, to 

 the close ribs at the ends, where the shape 

 becomes halfway between the letter ' U ' and 



