A PRACTICAL JOURNAL FOR AMATEURS. 
Copyright Secured, 1878. 
Vol. I. NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER, 1878. No. 9. 
twice that length is easily carried by two 
men. 
The cheapest form of canoe is made of 
spruce, elm, hickory or bass wood bark. It 
is constructed by peeling the bark from a 
section of the tree, say twelve or fourteen 
feet long, and about eighteen or twenty 
inches in diameter. It is not necessary to 
fell the tree to obtain the bark. It is first 
girdled at the top and bottom for the length 
desired. The outside bark may be shaved 
off or not, as may be convenient. Then cut 
perpendicularly from girdle to girdle, and 
start the bark at the girdles with wooden 
wedges. Be careful and not split the bark. 
When peeled, let it down carefully from the 
tree, and spread flat on a level place, with 
the rough side uppermost. The inside of 
the bark is made the outside of the canoe. 
As the ends are to be closed together, shave 
thin at these ends, and, folding the bark, 
bring them together in the manner shown 
in Fig. 1, and tie a half round stick on each 
side to hold them thus, binding firmly both 
at top and bottom. By means of an awl, or 
bodkin, to make the holes, sew together the 
ends that project beyond the half-round 
sticks. Make the stitches crossing each 
other. When firmly sewed, cut ofi" the 
sticks near the bark leaving enough to hold 
How to Make Indian Canoes. 
BY WM. B. HAREISON. 
BE term "canoe" 
is of Indian origin, 
and is applied to 
boats made of bark, 
or the body of a 
tree hollowed and 
made into suitable 
shape for sailing 
purposes. The 
civilized so-called 
" canoe " is but a 
cheap, portable 
yacht, often clinker 
built, and bearing little resemblance to the 
canoe of savage manufacture. 
In places where the white birch, or 
"canoe" birch grows to perfection, there 
the bark canoe is the favorite. Its chief 
merits are ease of construction and light- 
ness; the latter an essential quality where 
portage is necessary, a bark canoe twelve 
or fourteen feet long being easily carried on 
the shoulders of one man, while one of 
