ABORIGINAL USE OF WOOD IN NEW YORK 



141 



The bark is fastened to the wooden bows by thongs. They add a 

 mast, made of a piece of wood, and crosspiece to serve as a yard, and 

 their blankets serve them as sails. Pouchot, 2:217 



Xot all elm bark canoes were large, and Alexander Henry 

 described in making of two small ones near Toronto in June 1764 : 



We were employed two days in making canoes out of the bark of 

 the elm-tree, in which we were to transport ourselves to Niagara. 

 For this purpose the Indians first cut down a tree ; then stripped off 

 the bark in one entire sheet of about 18 feet in length, the incision 

 being length-wise. The canoe was now complete as to its top, bot- 

 tom and sides. Its ends were next closed, by sewing the bark to- 

 gether; and a few ribs and bars being introduced, the architecture 

 was finished. In this manner we made two canoes ; of which one 

 carried eight men, and the other, nine. Henry, ^.172 



Charlevoix also noted the size. " The bark of the red elm is that 

 of which the Iroquois make their canoes. Some of them which are 

 made of one single piece, will contain twenty persons." Charlevoix, 

 1 1249. Of the two kinds he said : " The one of the bark of elm, 

 wider, and of very coarse workmanship, but commonly the largest. 

 I know of no nation but the Iroquois, which have any of this sort." 

 Charlevoix, 1 : 293. Kalm had a canoe of white elm bark and 

 described its building. He said this was preferred as " being tougher 

 than the bark of any other tree." Kalm, 2 : 130 



These were easily made when the bark slipped, but not at other 

 times, and early records often mention this. For home use the 

 Mohawks made those which carried but two or three men. When 

 Canadian wars ceased, they adopted birch bark. The famous white 

 canoe of Hiawatha may have been of this kind, strongly contrasting 

 with the darker elm bark of the Onondagas. When Cammerhoff 

 and Zeisberger wished to go up the lake from the Cayuga village in 

 1750, they could get no boat. "As the canoes are all made of birch, 

 the few which were to be had were cracked and dried up by the heat 

 of the sun." Elkanah Watson was on Onondaga lake with other ex- 

 plorers in 1 79 1, and said: "We passed several birch canoes with 

 Onondago Indians, returning from fishing, accompanied by all their 

 families, children, dogs, cats, fowls, etc. These birch canoes are 

 extremely light — they sail like ducks upon the water, and some of 

 them are whimsically painted." Watson, p. 350 



