The Canoe​—Canada’s “Perfect Vehicle”

FRENCH explorer Samuel de Champlain crossed the Atlantic Ocean and sailed up the St. Lawrence River in what is today Canada. Soon he encountered a major obstacle at the site of Montreal: the Lachine Rapids. Any efforts to get his boats past the rapids would be in vain, he wrote in his journal in 1603. Dense forest made travel on foot impractical. So how did Champlain and his men continue their journey?

They took a lesson from the indigenous people and used canoes. “With the canoes,” noted Champlain, “one may travel freely and quickly throughout the country, as well up the little rivers as up the large ones.”

The “Perfect Vehicle”

Canada’s lakes and rivers were, indeed, ideal highways, and the canoe was considered to be the perfect vehicle. It enabled Native Americans to explore, hunt, and transport goods. Of course, canoe designs and construction methods varied because of such factors as function and natural resources. For example, people on Canada’s west coast built dugout canoes by hollowing out giant red cedars. The shell was then filled with water and hot stones. This softened the wood so that it could be suitably shaped. Some of these canoes could carry up to two tons, and they  were both fast and safe at sea, where they were used to hunt large sea mammals, including whales.

Perhaps the most famous North American canoe was the birch-bark canoe, formed from the outer rind of birch trees. Thanks largely to a substance called betulinol, birch bark is both durable and impervious to water. It is also exceptionally pliable and tough. “A birchbark canoe can go through rapids that would damage a wood-and-canvas canoe,” explains canoe builder David Gidmark.

Birch-bark canoe materials also included birch wood, cedar wood, spruce roots, and tree resin. Because these products all came from the forest, canoes could be repaired rather easily. What is more, the vessels were relatively light, making it easy to carry them around dangerous rapids and other obstacles. They were also environmentally friendly. When a canoe was discarded, it simply returned to the ecosystem, just like a fallen tree.

Construction methods were impressive. The native people “make no use of nails and screws but everything is sewn and tied together,” reported a 19th-century observer. “The seams, stitches and knots are so regular, firm and artistic that nothing better could be asked for.”

Before the railway era, the canoe was the fastest and most reliable means of transportation in much of Canada. Even after the introduction of the railway, canoe travel did not immediately become obsolete, for people often traveled by both train and canoe.

Canoes were so important to life in early North America that they influenced both the culture and the beliefs of the indigenous people. For example, according to some legends, canoes, not the Biblical ark, carried survivors safely through a great flood.

Canoeing Today

Canoeing is still popular in Canada but mainly as a form of recreation. Sadly, suitable trees to build good birch-bark canoes are becoming increasingly scarce. Other materials are readily available, though, including aluminum, canvas, wood, and fiberglass.

Bill Mason, a famous canoeist, added another dimension to canoeing when he said: “A journey by canoe along ancient waterways is a good way to rediscover our lost relationship with the natural world and the Creator who put it all together so long ago.” Many would heartily agree with that!

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THE KAYAK

The Inuit people live in a part of Canada devoid of forests. But that did not stop them from building watercraft. For raw materials, the Inuit used the skins of seals and caribou, as well as bones and driftwood that washed onto Arctic shores. Animal fat helped make the vessels waterproof. The result was the kayak.

The most obvious difference between a kayak and a conventional canoe is the kayak’s cover, which affords some protection from the elements and allows the kayak to roll over without taking on much water. Modern kayaks are usually made from fiberglass and other synthetic materials.

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