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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



These may have changed somewhat in form from economic rea- 

 sons. Good material is less abundant, and every useless pound adds 

 to the labor at the portage. High bows catch the wind and make 

 harder rowing, but all essential features remain. The general Onon- 

 daga name is ka-hone'-wah. Figure 85 shows a frequent form. 

 Figure 90 is drawn from a plate in Bartlett's Canadian Scenery, pub- 

 lished about 60 years ago, and is called " Canoe building at Papper's 

 island." Canadian Indians, in modern costume, are fastening the 

 bark on the frame, a woman is perforating other pieces, women wear 

 the burden strap and carry paddles and baskets, a temporary bark 

 hut appears on the right, such as travelers used in New York. It 

 illustrates many features of Indian life. Some birch canoes were 

 small. M. Pouchot described the larger ones : 



The frame of these canoes is made of strips of cedar wood, which 

 is very flexible, and which they render as thin as a side of a sword 

 scabbard, and three or four inches wide. They all touch one another, 

 and come up to a point between the two end strips. This frame is 

 covered with the bark of the birch tree sewed together like skins, 

 secured between the end strips, and tied along the ribs with the 

 inner bark of the roots of the cedar, as we twist willows around the 

 hoops of a cask. All these seams are covered with chewing gum, 

 as is done with canoes of elm bark. They then put in cross bars 

 to hold it and serve as seats, and a long pole, which they lay fore 

 and aft in rough weather, to prevent it from being broken by the 

 shocks occasioned by pitching. Pouchot, 2:218 



This was the large size used by traders, often turned over as a 

 shelter from the storm. 



The birch canoe at once attracted attention from its novelty and 

 perfect adaptation to a forest life. It has often been described and 

 is still an example of the survival of the fittest. On the whole, there 

 is no better early description than that of Charlevoix in 1721, which 

 includes much not found in others. It is fully quoted here: 



They extend the pieces of bark, which are very thick, on flat and 

 extremely thin timbers of Cedar-wood. All these timbers from head 

 to stern, are kept in form by little cross-bars, which form the differ- 

 ent seats in the canoe. Two girders of the same materials, to which 

 these bars are fastened or sewed, bind the whole fabric. Between 

 the timbers and the bark are inserted small pieces of cedar, still 

 more slender than the timbers, and which for all that contribute to 



