212 



peculiar method of securing and caulking, must have been the weakest 

 part of the Boat. The groove is remarkably well preserved, but of 

 shallow depth. The width, two and a half inches, gives us the thickness 

 of the stern board. In place of being flat-bottomed and straight- sided, 

 as are the large boats hitherto found, the section of the canoe exhibits as 

 delicate and fine a curved form as any frigate of Sir William Symonds, Or 

 blockade runner of Mr. John Laird 1 s. Preserved from erosion by the lake 

 mud deposit, the bottom has a solid thickness of five and a half inches, 

 and probably it never was thicker than half a foot ; but this is enormous, 

 greatly adds to its weight, and enlarges our view as to its pristine 

 proportions and strength. The lines are fine, and of arrowy straightness, 

 without a trace of sinuosity or distortion, and the timber for the most 

 part is in robust and admirable condition. In forming an estimate of 

 the size of the tree out of which this eanoe was fashioned, I may here 

 allude to the fact, that it exhibits no sign of sap wood ; and I am in- 

 formed by those who have examined into this point, that its dia- 

 meter, as it stood erect in the forest, must have been eight or nine feet. 

 The mode emplo) T ed in felling it was probably by fire, assisted by such 

 chopping tools as the country people could command. 



Notwithstanding the wonder of its size, I now come to the most 

 interesting topic in connexion with my subject; and here I am happy 

 to have the assistance of a drawing behind me, to which I beg 3^our 

 attention, and which represents the inner face of the Boat. I refer to the 

 number of holes which are drilled through the sides or bottom of the 

 canoe, carefully drilled, and in a most workmanlike manner, suggesting 

 sharp tools, and skill in the handling of them. The total number of holes, 

 or parts of holes, which we find is forty-eight. The feature of holes in 

 these old boats is not unusual, but this extraordinary number is most 

 unusual. On looking over the boats down stairs this morning, I found in 

 one boat six small holes, three on each side, and in one of them a plug, 

 which appears to have been broken off violently. In another boat three 

 holes, also very small, not large enough to thrust in a towel pin of 

 modern make, and arranged along the centre of the bottom of the boat. 

 But here we have forty-eight holes, twenty-four along the bottom, and 

 twenty-four lateral ones, of seven of which latter the waste of the 

 sides has left but imperfect sections. 



The first thought which is suggested by these holes is the apparent 

 regularity with which they are arranged, and the careful marks of 

 design which their relative positions emphatically proclaim . An in- 

 spection of the drawing will show that along 'the bottom, at stated 

 and constant intervals, we have twenty-four holes in two longitudinal 

 and parallel lines, or twelve in each long row. Viewed transversely, 

 or across the boat, we have twelve pairs of holes, each pair lying in the 

 same right line, and suggesting close connexion in their aim and ob- 

 ject. They are pierced right through the unvarying thickness of 

 the bottom, which I have already stated to be five and a half inches. 

 In some of them were found plugs of pine inserted from the interior, 



