104 
average size cannot carry more than fifty pounds on its back, or drag 
on a sled or toboggan more than a hundred; and before the intro- 
duction of firearms few families could provide food for more than 
one or two animals. Consequently the main burden of transporta- 
tion fell upon the people themselves, particularly on tlie women, 
50178 
A small Bella Coola dugoiit, “spoon" type, for river use. (Photo hy llartnn I. Smith.) 
since their husbands had oftentimes to wander away to the chase or 
guard the caravan against enemies. i Even among the Eskimos, who 
had little to fear from enemies, the women hauled on the sleds with 
the men, and in summer carried the greater part of the camp equip- 
ment. 
Canoes greatly lightened the burden of summer transportation 
in all regions except the prairies and certain parts of the Arctic and 
sub-Arctic. There were two main types, a dugout and a canoe covered 
with bark or skin. The dugout i)revailed all along the Pacific coast, 
but elsewhere in Canada only among some Iroquoian tribes,- whose 
territory, being near the southern limit of the birch, seldom provided 
satisfactory material for a bark-covered canoe. The Iroquoian dug- 
outs were miserable vessels, little more than logs of pine rudely 
hollowed and pointed at bow and stern. So heavy were they, so 
1 None of the tribes in the basin of tlte Maekcnaie river nsecJ do.<'s for clragfrins; the tobaggatis except 
the Chipewyans, and they rarely. Ilearne: Oi>. cit.. ii. 31(1. 
2 Perhaps also among some of the southern Ojiluva near the International Poundary. 
