105 
easily water-logged, and so ill-adapted for portaging from one lake 
or river to another, that these tribes frequently purchased birch-bark 
canoes from their Algonkian neighbours, or constructed canoes of 
elm bark after the same pattern. 
Almost equally crude were some of the river dugouts of British 
Columbia, which were made of cottonwood, with rounded ends and 
a gunwale level from bow to stern. Portages were seldom possible 
in this region on account of the precipitous mountains, and the rivers 
themselves were swifter and shallower, as a rule, than those in 
Iroquoian territory. Hence these river dugouts in the west were 
longer and narrower than the Iroquoian to prevent excessive swing- 
ing in the eddies and currents; and they were propelled by poles 
more often than by paddles. The sea canoe of the Pacific coast, made 
of cedar instead of cottonwood, was broader than the river canoe, 
m 
58502 
A small Nootka dugoiit, for coast use. (Photo hy N. K. Luxtou,) 
and much more carefully constructed. Although keelless, like all the 
craft in the New World, it was so buoyant and seaworthy that the 
Nootka often paddled out of sight of land off the stormy west coast 
of Vancouver island, and the Haida of the Queen Charlotte islands, 
in the early days of European settlement, made frequent voyages to 
Victoria, a distance of three hundred miles. These sea canoes varied 
greatly in size. Some held two persons only, others, sixty or seventy 
86959—81 
