Bark canoe

“ The larger the expanse of water over which the wind passes, the longer is the sea, and the easier is it for the ship to ride on it. Those of Lake Michigan, however, were quite long enough for a bark canoe, and glad enough were both Margery and Dorothy when they found their two little vessels lashed together, and wearing an air of more stability than was common to them. Le Bourdon's sail was first spread, and it produced an immediate relief from the washing of the waves. The drift of a bark canoe, in a smart blow, is considerable, it having no hold on the water to resist it ”

“ The birch-bark canoe has many limitations and not a few weaknesses, but if one has the good luck to find a good one, and treats it fairly, it will prove a safe and dry craft for many hundreds of miles’ travel. Of course, one must carry a kettle of pitch for making repairs, and be content to travel somewhat slower than with modern canoes, but this may not be a disadvantage. Birch canoes have no seats, as the Indian kneels when paddling, but a low thwart, or seat, is easy to put in at the bow and stern, if one prefers the white man’s paddling position. ”

“ They could see the raised prow of what looked to be a genuine birch bark canoe poke in sight. In these modern days when even the Indians up in Maine manufacture up-to-date canvas canoes by the thousand, it is a rare event to run across one made of birch bark. The trees that are large enough for the purpose have about all been destroyed, so the Indians claim, which accounts for the revolution in canoes. ”

“ Were any of my readers ever on board the Indian's bark canoe? Some, doubtless, have been, and such will bear me out in the declaration that the voyager experiences emotions peculiarly agreeable. As a conveyance, it seems to occupy a space between riding and flying; not in respect to its speed, although this is considerable when the paddle is vigorously applied, but its fairy-like buoyancy quite dissipates the idea of one's gravity. ”

“ White men adopted the bark canoes at once, and learned from Indians how to make them. The daring explorers and venturesome fur traders who threaded every river and navigated every important lake of British America, found the birch canoe equal to every requirement, even to attacking whales in the tidewater of the Arctic ocean. ”

“ Driggs admitted quickly. "It must be a tough job on your backs, too. But, boys, I wouldn't mind having a lot of this stuff, for birch bark canoes are coming into favor again. The only trouble is that birch bark is hard to get, these days, and costs a lot to boot. So it makes birchbark canoes come pretty high. At the same time, there are plenty of wealthy folks who would pay me well for a birch-bark canoe. Now, I know that you boys, owning a canoe that will soon be in the water, won't be anxious to give up your whole summer to doing jobs for me. ”

“ If he is only going to cross the river by himself, he simply ties the bark together at the ends, paddles across, and abandons the piece of bark on the other side, knowing that he can easily provide another. If it is to carry another besides himself, he stops up the tied ends with clay; but if it is to be permanently employed, he sews up the ends more carefully, and keeps it in shape by cross-pieces, thereby producing a vessel which closely resembles the bark canoe of North America (Wood, Nat. Hist. of Man, ii. 103) . ”

“ This I worked sometimes from a small bark canoe and sometimes from a wooden one, which I keep at the farm, and use to paddle up and down the stream between the willows and the bridge, or upon the lake itself.
Many men prefer a boat and oars, but I find a light canoe infinitely preferable. The double paddle makes less splash than the oars, and if one can use the Canadian single blade, it does not make any noise at all. Added to this it is easier managed, one sees where one is going, and it can be lifted with one hand from stream to lake, and lake to stream. ”

“ But no canoe was there, and the fugitives were soon in the lake. Michigan is a large body of water, and a bark canoe is but a frail craft to put to sea in, when there is any wind or commotion. On the present occasion, there was a good deal of both; so much as greatly to terrify the females. Of all the craft known, however, one of these egg-shells is really the safest, if properly managed, among breakers or amid the combing of seas. We have ourselves ridden in them safely through a surf that would have swamped the best man-of-war cutter that ever floated ”

“ How to Build a Real Birch-Bark Canoe or a Canvas Canoe on a "Birch-Bark" Frame—How to Mend a Birch-Bark
Although the Indian was the first to build these simple little boats, some of his white brothers are quite as expert in the work. But the red man can outdo his white brother in navigating the craft. The only tools required in building a canoe are a knife and awl, a draw-shave and a hammer. An Indian can do all of his work with a knife. ”

“ Few persons know how beautiful and delicate a canoe is. It is manufactured only by the Indian; in that the white man has never equalled him. The best is made from a piece of white birch bark, stripped from the tree in springtime, damped, and after being cut away to the requisite extent, molded into the proper shape. The inside is covered with gum, and a thinner piece of bark fitted upon it, so that though the outer bark be torn, it still does not leak. ”

“ The well-made canvas-covered canoe is, if properly designed, a pretty good facsimile of the representative Indian model in that it possesses all the good points of the birch-bark canoe, but is more substantially constructed, of better and more durable material, and more finely finished. In making the selection, it is necessary to pay a fair price to obtain a good craft, and while various manufacturers supply canoes of similar types at different prices, some of them are so inferior that they will scarcely stand a season’s use. ”

“ We have seen no bark canoes here; they are all of cedar. No doubt there is good canoe-birch on the river-banks, but something more durable is needed. The North-west Fur Company, in early days, sent out a cargo of birch from Montreal to London, to be shipped from there round Cape Horn to the north-west coast of America, to be made into canoes for their men to navigate the Columbia and its branches; in direst ignorance of the requirements of the country, as well as of its productions. ”

“ I have already mentioned dugouts, but birchbark canoes and kyaks are also used at the present time as widely as ever. It is evident that some of these prehistoric craft had been developed to the utmost point of perfection before the advent of civilization for many of them have never been improved upon. With all our knowledge we have never found any boat so well adapted to its purpose as the red man’s canoe, and while we now make them of canvas instead of bark, we follow the same models as those used by the Indians centuries ago. ”

“ When all was in readiness I lighted my pipe, seated myself on the bottom of my canoe, leaned back against one of the bords or cross bars; then David, sitting upon the V formed by the sides of the canoe at the stern, with paddle in hand, sent the birch bark flying up our river. Like most Canadian trout streams it consists of a series of still, deep pools, and swift, rocky rapids, alternating. Often the rapids have a fall of one foot in ten, and are from one to five, and sometimes ten or more rods in length. It is marvellous how these canoeists will force a loaded canoe up them. ”

“ The bark canoes which the Indians of North America employed on the great rivers and lakes when white men first went there are unchanged in their method of construction, and though in places where civilisation and the mechanical arts have assumed sway the old canoes have given way to the products of the modern boat-builders’ skill, yet in the farther North-West the Indian canoe ripples the summer surface of the lakes and streams as it did centuries ago. ”

“ These half-civilized beings seem to take as naturally to the making of these commodities, as if it were almost an hereditary habit with them; and few men, even with the most exhaustive practice, can compete with the Indian in the combined result of strength, lightness, durability, external beauty, and nicety of work, which are the united characteristics of the typical bark canoe. ”

“ Our Indian leaves his canoe to season sufficiently after making and before he launches it. He oils it instead of painting, as he has no paint. His paddles are shaped from any kind of light wood; always two in number, in order that he may have an extra one on hand.
The bark canoe requires more skill and labor to make, and is much more ornamental. In the first place, you need just the right kind of bark, and for this you must search through the woods. You must unbark many trees to obtain sheets 52 of uniform thickness and elasticity, sound, and of the proper length and width. ”

“ But now greater caution was needed, because anything like a miss would send them downward, and might hurl them with destructive force against the rocks and ledges which they had already passed. A birch-bark canoe is an exceedingly tender craft, which is not only certain of destruction if it strikes a rock, but is pretty sure of being swamped if it even grazes one. ”

“ The birch-bark, by reason of its rougher workmanship, is slow under the paddle, is easily injured, and it grows heavier and more difficult to handle every time it is used. The all-wood canoe is most expensive to buy, and though swift under the paddle, is too easily injured and too difficult to repair for rough and ready use. The cedar-planked canoe which is covered with filled and painted canvas is for many reasons the best all-around craft-attractive enough for park use, and stout enough for use in rapid water and for cruising in northern lakes and rivers. ”

“ The Indian model is a good one so far as the freeboard, width of beam, and flaring stems are concerned, but the curved bottom makes it extremely cranky and dangerous for the novice to handle. Be sure to see that the birch-bark canoe is fashioned with a flat, straight bottom, which makes the craft steadier and less inclined to veer about under the stroke of the paddle. In an expert’s hands the round bottom will be found a decided advantage, making it faster to paddle and more easily turned and steered in swift and rough water. ”

“ Some boys, more fortunate than others, were from time to time possessed of birch-bark canoes—small ones. Of all the craft that ever floated, the birch-bark comes nearer being the ideal boat than any other. So light is it, that it may be carried on the head and shoulders for miles without great fatigue; and 24 it sits on the water like a whiff of foam—a veritable fairy craft. It was the custom of the boys who owned these little "birches" to shove them off the sand with a run, and when they were clear of the land to jump over the end, and standing erect, paddle away like the wind. ”

“ Several years ago canvas began to be used extensively in canoe-building, instead of birch bark, and it will eventually entirely supersede birch, although nothing can be found that bends so gracefully. There are several canvas-canoe factories in Maine, and the canoes made of canvas have both the symmetry and the durability of the birches. They are also a trifle cheaper, but if the real thing and sentiment are wanted, one should never have anything but a bark craft. ”

“ The bark [Pg 43] canoe, which for certain purposes has never been improved upon—not even excepting the cedar-built canoe—varied in size from nine to thirty feet, or, in the language of the voyageur, from one and a half to five fathoms. These canoes had capacity for a crew of from one to thirty men, or a cargo of seventy "pieces" of ninety pounds each, equal to three tons, exclusive of provisions for nine paddlers. ”

“ At Michilimackinac, where it is now difficult to get fresh lodge poles, without going some distance, or trespassing on private rights, the natives who resort thither, of late years, have adopted an ingenious change, by which two objects are accomplished at the same time, and the labour of the females dispensed with in getting new poles. It is known, that the bark canoe, being itself but an enlarged species of wicker work, has not sufficient strength to be freighted, without previously having a number of poles laid longitudinally, in the bottom, as a kind of vertebral support. ”

“ The Australian canoe represents one of the most primitive appliances ever used by mankind for the purpose of navigation. In some districts it consists of a mere sheet of bark, slightly raised at the edges, serving even in still water to float but a single person, and requiring the greatest care to prevent its overturning. In others a nearer approach is made to the boat form by bending the sheet of bark somewhat in the form of the sides of a boat, sewing or tying up its ends with some fibrous material, and making it water-tight by means of gum or clay. ”

“ The charm of the birchen canoe has long been sung in verse and prose, and while the bark that the Indian used has been supplanted by a more perfect type of modern manufacture, the popularity of this, the most graceful of water craft, has increased with years, until today we find the canoe the choice of thousands of recreation seekers who paddle about in park lakes and quiet streams, or spend their vacations in cruising down rivers and other attractive waterways—sometimes within the environs of towns and villages, and again dipping paddles in the wilderness streams of the far north. ”