This is the most recent text to accompany my gifts of pocket knives to a few friends. Again, I've left out the illustrations (primarily because I haven't conquered the technical ability to steal them and post them in the text). In any case, perhaps the text alone will be of some interest.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!!

Teepees, tomahawks and canoes are enduring symbols of the American Indian. Teepees and tomahawks have become kitsch - at least to those of us who had the bad luck to have been a cub scout or a boy scout during the decade of Senator Joseph McCarthy and/or who wore them out during endless pointless cowboy and Indian play.

The canoe, however, has fared somewhat better. It is a fundamental symbol and widely appreciated metaphor as well. Of course there is the horridly obnoxious “paddle your own” advice.  But there is also the canoe’s association with the simplicity of pre-industrial American life and native American respect for the land and the environment.

But to those suffering interest in folding knives, the canoe represents a wonderful enduring American pocket knife pattern.

The canoe pattern evolved from one of the earliest pocket knife patterns, namely the “equal end”. 

The equal ended knife pattern may or may not have bolsters and is immediately recognizable as a common gentleman’s pocket knife pattern though it was also used for larger knives with anywhere from one to three or even four blades or other tools such as a leather punch for equestrians and cowboys or in later examples, can openers, bottle openers, screw drivers and lately flashlights, pens and computer memory sticks - a specialty of the Swiss army knife people, it would seem. In more traditional two bladed examples the blade axel may be shared at one end or there may be one blade axel at either end to accommodate opposing blades.  Obviously the main point is that the geometry is a elongated oval or a rectangle with rounded ends that match.

At some point, probably in the latter nineteenth century but certainly before the Great War, the canoe pattern emerged representing only a slight change from the double opposing blades version of the longstanding equal end pattern.  The ends were simply reformed to resemble the matching bow and stern of a simple North American canoe and the body of the handle was slightly altered to resemble the side walls of the boat.

When closed the perimeter of the knife forms one continuous elegant line with no angles or protrusions of any kind.

The length of the canoe pattern has come to be fairly standardized at  3 5/8” closed with two blades, a classical 2 1/2”spear point and and smaller “pen” blade mounted at opposing ends.

A smaller version (less than 3” in length closed), often called a “Butterbean” is also quite common. The main formal issues are the clarity and beauty of the line formed as the curve of the bolster joins with the curve of the blade both at the axel end and at the opposite end, the height of the side walls relative the length of the knife and the nature of the curve of the handle both on its spring side and its blade side and the beauty and thickness or thinness of the handle material. 

The pattern has persisted for over a century, perhaps well over a century. It has always enjoyed popularity in the US but never enough to challenge the barlow in the nineteenth century or the trapper (about which there will be more in the future) which took the place of the barlow in the 1920’s. 

The form is so simple and the geometry so pure that the ensemble is widely appealing, Size, weight and rounded corners make a canoe easy to carry in one’s pocket. But as practical as the pattern is, a canoe pocket knife is a great deal more than merely practical. It is rich with meaning about American life, culture and history.

The idea most often advanced regarding the canoe pattern concerns its “celebration” of the  canoe which amounts to  a “celebration” of American Indians and their culture. By the late nineteenth century when the canoe pattern developed this makes some sense as by then the actual history of Native Americans required reformulation. Enslavement, the torture of broken promises and forced marches and finally, the genocide needed to be reformulated and the romance of the Indian and Indian life, the stock characters of the good and loyal Indian scout, the wise and noble “savage” substituted. Soon there would be Yancy Derringer’s Pahu and The Lone Ranger’s Tonto to think of when when one thought of Native Americans. Hardly much of an improvement really and hardly long lived given Wounded Knee, twentieth century civil rights struggles and the rest.

Thinking about the canoe means thinking not only of peaceful silent gliding over water with little intrusion on the natural world but also of appropriated Native American culture. It prompts thoughts and feelings about the entire history of Native Americans. All this comes to mind by merely handling a canoe pocket knife.

What follows are bits and pieces of literature and song, of fact, art and entertainment which constitute a part of what might come to mind when cutting the odd thread, slicing an apple, liberating something imprisoned in plastic packaging or opening a cardboard box with your beautifully conceived, canoe patterned pocket knife. 

     Note: Readers of this appreciation should watch Stefan Schmalhaus’ informative and “highly produced” video, “Native American Heritage and the Spirit of Adventure: Case Canoe” which pointed me to and includes a reading from Chapter 20 of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gFQ-tw15TA)

Columbia Encyclopedia 

http://www.answers.com/library/Columbia+Encyclopedia-cid-12643

Canoe

canoe (kənū'), long, narrow watercraft with sharp ends originally used by most peoples. It is usually propelled by means of paddles, although sails and, more recently, outboard motors are also used.

The canoe varies in material according to locality and in design according to the use made of it. In North America, where horses were not generally used and where the interlocking river systems were unusually favorable, the canoe in its various types was highly developed. Where large logs were available, it took the form of the hollowed-out log, or dugout, especially on the N Pacific coast, where immense trees grew at the water's edge, where an intricate archipelago invited navigation in ocean waters, and where the tribes came to depend to a large extent upon sea life for their food supply. A semi-sea faring culture developed there, and the great canoes of the Haida and Tlingit tribes, with high, decorated prows, capable of carrying 30 to 50 people, began to resemble the boats of Viking culture.

On the northern fringe of the American forest where smaller tree trunks were found and rapid rivers and many portages favored a lighter craft, the bark canoe dominated, reaching its highest development in the birchbark canoe. At portages this light canoe could be lifted on one's shoulders and easily transported. It was the birchbark canoe that carried such explorers as Jacques Marquette, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, and David Thompson on their journeys and carried fur traders out to trade with Native Americans; thus it played an important part in early American history.

A third type of primitive canoe is that made from skins, found where trees are lacking. The bull boat of the Plains people, little more than a round tub made of buffalo hides stretched over a circular frame, was its crudest form. A much finer form is the kayak of the Eskimo, originally made of sealskin stretched over a frame constructed of driftwood or whalebone.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugout_(boat)

A dugout or dugout canoe is a boat made from a hollowed tree trunk....

Dugouts are the oldest boats archaeologists have found, dating back about 8,000 years to the Neolithic Stone Age.[...

The Pesse canoe, found in the Netherlands, is a dugout which is believed to be the world's oldest boat, carbon dated to between 8040 BCE and 7510 BCE.

Dugout canoes were constructed throughout the Americas, where suitable logs were available. The indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest are very skilled at crafting wood. Best known for totem poles up to 80 feet (24 m) tall, they also construct dugout canoes over 60 feet (18 m) long for everyday use and ceremonial purposes.[16]

The Solomon Islanders have used and continue to use dugout canoes to travel between islands. In World War II these were used during the Japanese occupation - with their small visual and noise signatures these were among the smallest boats used by the Allied forces in World War II. After the sinking of PT-109, Biuki Gasa reached the shipwrecked John F. Kennedy by dugout.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugout_(boat)

The first explorer to cross the North American continent, Alexander Mackenzie, used canoes extensively, as did David Thompson and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

See also: Canoe  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canoe

The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition      

University of Nebraska At Lincoln

February 1, 1806      http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/read/?_xmlsrc=1806-02-01.xml

[Lewis] 

Saturday February 1st 1806.

  This morning a party of four men set out with Joseph Fields; Sgt. Gass with a party of five men again set out up the Netul river in search of the Elk which had been killed some days since, and which could not be found in consequence of the snow. The Canoes of the naives inhabiting the lower portion of the Columbia River make their canoes remarkably neat light and well adapted for riding high waves. I have seen the natives near the coast riding waves in these canoes with safety and apparently without concern where I should have thought it impossible for any vessel of the same size to lived a minute.    they are built of white cedar or Arbor vita generally, but sometimes of the fir.    they are cut out of a solid stick of timber, the gun walls at the upper edge fold over outwards and are about ⅝ of an inch thick and 4 or five broad, and stand horizontally forming a kind of rim to the canoe to prevent the water beating into it. They are all furnished with more or less crossbars in proportion to the size of the canoe. These bars are round sticks about half the size of a man's arm, which are inserted through holes 〈just〉made in either side of the canoe just below the rim of the gun wall and are further secured with strings of way tape;  [1] these crossbars serve to lift and manage the canoe on land.    when the natives land they invariably take their canoes on shore, unless they are heavily laden, and then even, if they remain all night, they discharge their loads and take the canoes on shore. Some of the large canoes are upwards of 50 feet long and will carry from 8 to 10 thousand lbs. or from 20 to thirty persons and some of them particularly on the sea coast are waxed painted and ornamented with curious images at bough and Stern; those images sometimes rise to the hight of five feet; the pedestals on which these images are fixed are sometimes cut out of the solid stick with the canoe, and the imagery is formed of separate small pieces of timber firmly united with tenants and notices without assistance of a single spike of any kind.  When the natives are engaged in navigating their canoes one sets in the stern and steers with a paddle the others set by pears and paddle over the gun wall next them, they all kneel in the bottom of the canoe and set on their feet. Their paddles are of a uniform shape of which this is an imitation  [2]  These paddles are made very thin and the middle of the blade is thick and hollowed out suddenly and made thin at the sides while the center forms a kind of rib. The blade occupies about one third of the length of the paddle which is usually from 4½ to 5 feet. I have observed four forms of canoe only in use among the nations below the grand cataract of this river they are as follows. This is the smallest size  [3] about 15 feet long and calculated for one or two persons, and are most common among the Cathlahmahs and Wâck-ki a comes among the marshy Islands. A the bow; B, the stern; these  [4] are from twenty to thirty five feet and from two ½ to 3 feet in the beam and about 2 feet in the hole; this canoe is common to all the nations below the grand rapids. It is here made deeper and shorter in proportion than they really are. The bowsprit from C, to D is brought to a sharp edge tapering gradually from the sides.

 

       This is the most common form  [5] of the canoe in use among the Indians from; the Chil-luck-kit-te-quaw inclusive to the Ocean and is usually about 30 or 35 feet long, and will carry from ten to twelve persons. 4 men are competent to carry them a considerable distance say a mile without resting. A is the end which they use as the bow, but which on first sight I took to be the stern C. D. is a comb cut of the solid stick with the canoe and projects from the center of the end of the canoe being about 1 inch thick it's sides parallel and edge at C D. sharp. It is from 9 to 11 Inches in length and extends from the underpart of the bowsprit at A to the bottom of the canoe at D. The stern B. is nearly rounding and gradually ascending. 1 2 3 represents the rim of the gun walls about 4 Inches wide, rather ascending as they recede from the canoe.  4 5 6 7 8 are the round holes through which the cross bars are inserted....

   ...This form of canoe  [6]. We did not meet with until we reached tidewater or below the grand rapids.    from thence down it is common to all the nations but more particularly the Killamucks and others of the coast. these are the largest canoes. B. is the bow and comb. C. the stern and comb. Their images are representations of a great variety of grotesque figures, any of which might be safely worshiped without committing a breach of the commandments. [7]

  They have but few axes among them, and the only too usually employed in felling the trees or forming the canoe, carving &c is a chisel formed of an old file about an Inch or an Inch and a half broad.  This chisel has sometimes a large block of wood for a handle; they grasp the chisel just below the block with the right hand holding the edge down while with the left they take hold of the top of the block and struck backhanded against the wood with the edge of the chisel. [8]  A person would suppose that the forming of a large canoe with an instrument like this was the work of several years; but these people make them in a few weeks. they prize their canoes very highly; we have been anxious to obtain some of them, for our journey up the river but have not been able to obtain one as yet from the natives in this neighborhood. Today we opened and examined all our ammunition, which had been secured in leaden canisters.  We found twenty seven of the best rifle powder, 4 of common rifle, three of glazed and one of the musket powder in good order, [9] perfectly as dry as when first put in the canisters, altho' the whole of it from various accidents has been for hours under the water.    These canisters contain four lbs. of powder each and 〈contain〉8 of lead.  Had it not have been for that happy expedient which I devised of securing the powder by means of the lead, we should not have had a single charge of powder at this time. Three of the canisters which had been accidentally bruised and cracked, one which was carelessly stopped, and a fifth that had been penetrated with a nail, were a little damaged; these we gave to the men stock to last us back; and we always take care to put a proportion of it in each canoe, to the end that should one canoe or more be lost we should still not be entirely bereft of ammunition, which is now our only hope for subsistence and defense in a rout of 4000 miles through a country exclusively inhabited by savages....

   ...This morning a party of four men set out with Jo. Field; and Sgt. Gass with a party of five men again set out up the Netul river in search of the Elk which had been killed some days since, and which could not be found in consequence of the Snow.

 The Canoes of the native inhabiting the lower part of the Columbia River from the Long narrows down make their canoes remarkably neat light and well adapted for riding high waves. I have seen the natives near the coast riding waves in these Canoes in safety and apparently without concern when I Should it impossible for any vessel of the same size to have lived or kept above water a minute. They are built of Arbor vita or white cedar generally, but sometimes of fir. They are cut out of a solid stick of timber, the gun walls at the upper edge fold over outwards and are about ⅝ of an inch thick and 4 or 5 broad, and stand out nearly horizontally forming a kind of rim to the Canoe to prevent the water beating into it. They are all furnished with more or less cross bars agreeably to their sizes of the Canoe, those bars are round sticks about 1 inch and ½ diameter which are attached to the inner side of the canoes a little below the rim on either side with throngs of cedar bark which is inserted through holes and made fast to the ends of the stick, which is made smaller than the other part of the stick to prevent the cord slipping off    these cross bears serve to strengthen the canoe, and by which they lift and manage her on land. When the natives land the[y] invariably take their Canoes on shore unless they are heavily ladened, and then even, if they remain all night, they discharge their loads and take the Canoe on shore.

 Some of the large Canoes are upwards of 50 feet long and will carry from 8 to 12 thousand lbs. or from 20 to 30 persons, and some of them particularly on the sea coast are waxed painted and ornamented with curious images on bow and stern; those images sometimes rise to the hight of five feet; the pedestal on which these images are fixed, are sometimes cut out of the solid stick with the Canoe, and the image is formed of separate pieces of timber firmly united with tenants and mortices without the appearance of a single spike or nail of any kind. When the natives are engaged in navigating their Canoes, one sets in the stern and steers with a paddle the others set by pars and paddle over their gun walls next them, they all kneel in the bottom of the Canoe and set on their feet. their paddles are of an uniform shape which this is an imitation  [10]    those paddles are made very thin and the middle of the blade is thick and hollowed out suddenly, and made thin on the sides, the center forming a kind of ridge. The [handle] occupies about ⅓ of the length of the paddle which is usually 4 to 4½ feet in length. I have observed five forms of Canoes only in use among the natives below the Grand Cataract of this river. They are as follows.  [11]  This is the smallest size about 15 feet long,  [12] and calculated for one two men merely to cross creeks, take over short portages to navigate the ponds and still water, and is mostly in use amongst the Clatsops and Chinnooks.  [13]    this is the next smallest and from 16 to 20 feet long and calculated for two or 3 persons and are most islands, near their villages.  [14] A the bow; B the stern; those are from 20 to 40 feet in length and from 2½ to 3½ feet in the beam and about 2 feet deep; this Canoe is common to all the nations below the grand rapids  It here made deeper and shorter in proportion than the canoe really is, the bow sprit from C. to D. is brought to a sharp edge tapering gradually from the sides.  [15] This is the most common form of the Canoes in use among the indians from the Chil-luck-kit-te quaw inclusive to the ocean and is commonly from about 30 to 35 feet long, and will carry from 10 to 12 persons.    4 men are competent to carry them a considerable distance say a mile without resting. A is the end the natives use as the bow, but which on first sight I took to be the stern    c. d. is a comb cut of the solid wood with the Canoe, and projects from the center of the end of the Canoe being about 1 inch thick, it's sides parallel and edge at c, d, sharp. It is from 9 to 11 inches in depth and extends from the under part of the bow sprit at A to the bottom at, d,.    the stern B is nearly rounding and gradually ascending. 1, 2, 3, represents the rim of the gun walls about 4 inches wide, rather ascending as they recede from the Canoe.  4, 5, 6, 7, 8, are the holes through which the string pass to fasten the round pieces which pass crosswise the Canoe to strengthen & lift her.  [16] This form of a canoe we did not meet with until we reached tide water or below the Great Rapids.    from thence down it is common to all the nations but more particularly the Kil a mox and others of the Coast. These are the largest Canoes, I measured one at the Kilamox villag S S W of us which was [blank] feet long [blank] feet wide and [blank] feet deep, and they are most commonly about that size. B is the bow, and Comb. C, the stern and comb. Their images are representations of a great variety of grotesque figures, any of which might be safely worshiped without committing a breach of the Commandments...

       ...They have but few axes among them, and the only tool usually employed in forming the Canoe, carving &c is a chisel formed of an old file about an inch of 1½ inches broad, this chisel has sometimes a large block of wood for a handle; they grasp the chisel just below he block with the right hand holding the top of the block, and strikes backwards against the wood with the edge of the chisel. A person would Suppose that forming a large Canoe with an instrument like this was the work of several years; but those people make them in a few weeks. They prize their Canoes very highly; we have been anxious to obtain some of them, for our journey up the river but have not been able to obtain one as yet from the natives in this neighborhood.

 To day we opened and examined all our ammunition, which has been secured in leaden canisters.  We found twenty seven of the best rifle powder, 4 of common rifle, 3 of Glaize and one of Musket powder in good order, perfectly as dry as when first put in the canisters, although the whole of it from various accidents have been for hours under the water. These canisters contain 4 pounds of powder each and 8 of Lead. Had it not been for that happy expedient which Capt. Lewis devised of securing the powder by means of the Lead, we should have found great difficulty in keeping dry powder until

 this time—; those canisters which had been accidentally bruised and cracked, one which was carelessly stopped, and a fifth which had been penetrated with a nail; were wet and damaged; those we gave to the men to dry; however exclusive of those 5 we have an abundant stock to last us back; and we always take care to put a proportion of it in each Canoe, to the end that should one Canoe or more be lost we should still not be entirely bereft of ammunition, which is now our only hope for subsistence and defenses in the rout of 4,000 miles through a country exclusively inhabited by Indians—many bands of which are savage in every sense of the word—....

  [Ordway] 

Saturday 1st February 1806.    a clear cold morning. Sgt. Gass and five more of the party Set out a hunting, and 4 men Set out with a hunter  [17] to help with the meat to the Salt works.

[Gass] 

  Saturday 1st Feb. 1806.    We had a fine clear cold morning. A number of the men  [18]went out to bring meat to the fort, and to take some to the saltworks.  [19]

[Whitehouse] 

 Saturday February 1st    A clear cold morning.  Sargent Gass & five of our Men left the fort to go on a hunting party, four men also left the fort with the hunter,  [20] in order to help him to carry the meat of the 2 Elk he had killed to the Salt Camp.—

[Notes]

1. Or watap, the stringy roots of trees used in construction, particularly of canoes. (Return to text.)

 2. Here in Lewis's Codex J, p. 52, appears a sketch of the paddle (fig. 24). (Return to text.)

3. A sketch of the first (small) type of canoe appears about here in Lewis's Codex J, p. 52 (fig. 24). Probably the so-called shovel-nose canoe of the Chinooks. Ruby & Brown (CITC), 17; Waterman, 10–11; Olson, 19; Waterman & Coffin, plate 2. (Return to text.)

4. About here in Lewis's Codex J, p. 52, appears a sketch of the second (high bow) type of canoe (fig. 24). It appears to be the so-called "Chinook" canoe, actually made by the Nootkas of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and traded south to the Chinooks; it was considered an excellent, sea-worthy craft. Ruby & Brown (CITC), 18; Waterman, 9–11, 16–19, plate 2, clearly illustrating he same general type; Olson, 19. (Return to text.)

 5. A sketch of the third (most common) type of canoe in Lewis's Codex J, p. 52 (fig. 24). Perhaps a so-called freight canoe. Waterman & Coffin, 17–18, plate 1. (Return to text.)

 6. A sketch of the fourth (carved images) type of canoe in Lewis's Codex J, p. 53 (fig. 25), apparently less widely distributed than the previous types. Drucker, 76. (Return to text.)

7. One of the rare Biblical references in the journals, citing the injunction against making or worshipping an image of anything in the heavens, on the earth, or in the waters under the earth. Exodus, 20:4. (Return to text.)

 8. Olson, 13–14, plate 1, cites this passage. (Return to text.)

 9. Gunpowder was graded for use according to the fineness of the grains. Rifle powder was finer than musket powder, which was again finer than that used for cannon. "Glazed" powder grains had a hard, smooth surface, making them more resistant to moisture. Russell (GEF), 222. (Return to text.)

10. A sketch of the paddle in Clark's Voorhis No. 2 journal (fig. 26). (Return to text.)

11. A sketch of the first (small) type of canoe in Clark's Voorhis No. 2 journal (fig. 26). (Return to text.)

 12. Another paddle with a sharp point is shown here in Clark's Voorhis No. 2 at the bottom of the page; it is not discussed in the text (fig. 26). (Return to text.)

 13. A sketch of the next (another small) type of canoe in Clark's Voorhis No. 2 journal (fig. 27), not shown or described in Lewis's entry for this date, above. (Return to text.)

 14. A sketch of the third (high bow) tpe of canoe inClark's Voorhis No. 2 journal (fig. 27), Lewis's second type. (Return to text.)

 15. A sketch of the fourth (most common) type of canoe in Clark's Voorhis No. 2 journal (fig. 27), Lewis's third type. (Return to text.)

 16. A sketch of the last (carved images) type of canoe in Clark's Voorhis No. 2 journal (fig. 28), Lewis's fourth type. (Return to text.)

 17. Joseph Field again, record the captains. (Return to text.)

 18. Gass with a party of five men, according to Lewis. (Return to text.)

 19. Joseph Field and the party he had come for the previous day. (Return to text.)

 20. Joseph Field, write the captains. (Return to text.)

N.B. Some spelling has been corrected/modernized by your anthologist.

The State Historical Society of North Dakota 

http://history.nd.gov/exhibits/lewisclark/boats.html

Up until they reached the Mandan villages in present-day North Dakota, the Corps of Discovery traveled in a keel boat specially designed for the task. Built in Pittsburgh, the keel boat traveled down the Ohio River until reaching the Mississippi River and eventually, St. Louis. Once upon the Missouri, the boat had to be pulled upstream, an arduous task by any standard, usually making around five miles a day. By the spring of 1805, the expedition switched to canoes and pirogues, the latter comprised of hollowed-out cottonwood logs often strapped together for stability. These boats provided the men with adequate transportation until reaching the Rocky Mountains, whereupon travel on foot and when they could obtain them, horseback, became common. On the return trip down the Missouri–traveling with the current–the expedition could make up to 70 miles a day, although the average was around 35 to 40. 

Englishverse.Com

http://www.englishverse.com/poems/hiawatha_vii_hiawathas_sailing

“The Song of Hiawatha”, VII. Hiawatha's Sailing 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Give me of your bark, O Birch-tree! 

Of your yellow bark, O Birch-tree! 

Growing by the rushing river, 

Tall and stately in the valley! 

I a light canoe will build me, 

Build a swift Cheemaun for sailing, 

That shall float on the river, 

Like a yellow leaf in Autumn, 

Like a yellow water-lily!

        "Lay aside your cloak, O Birch-tree! 

Lay aside your white-skin wrapper, 

For the Summer-time is coming, 

And the sun is warm in heaven, 

And you need no white-skin wrapper!"

        Thus aloud cried Hiawatha 

In the solitary forest, 

By the rushing Taquamenaw, 

When the birds were singing gayly, 

In the Moon of Leaves were singing, 

And the sun, from sleep awaking, 

Started up and said, "Behold me! 

Gheezis, the great Sun, behold me!"

        And the tree with all its branches 

Rustled in the breeze of morning, 

Saying, with a sigh of patience, 

"Take my cloak, O Hiawatha!"

        With his knife the tree he girdled; 

Just beneath its lowest branches, 

Just above the roots, he cut it, 

Till the sap came oozing outward;

Down the trunk, from top to bottom, 

Sheer he cleft the bark asunder, 

With a wooden wedge he raised it, 

Stripped it from the trunk unbroken.

        "Give me of your boughs, O Cedar! 

Of your strong and pliant branches, 

My canoe to make more steady, 

Make more strong and firm beneath me!"

        Through the summit of the Cedar 

Went a sound, a cry of horror, 

Went a murmur of resistance; 

But it whispered, bending downward, 

'Take my boughs, O Hiawatha!"

        Down he hewed the boughs of cedar, 

Shaped them straightway to a frame-work, 

Like two bows he formed and shaped them, 

Like two bended bows together.

        "Give me of your roots, O Tamarack! 

Of your fibrous roots, O Larch-tree! 

My canoe to bind together, 

So to bind the ends together 

That the water may not enter, 

That the river may not wet me!"

        And the Larch, with all its fibres, 

Shivered in the air of morning, 

Touched his forehead with its tassels, 

Slid, with one long sigh of sorrow. 

"Take them all, O Hiawatha!"

        From the earth he tore the fibres, 

Tore the tough roots of the Larch-tree, 

Closely sewed the hark together, 

Bound it closely to the frame-work.

        "Give me of your balm, O Fir-tree! 

Of your balsam and your resin, 

So to close the seams together 

That the water may not enter, 

That the river may not wet me!"

        And the Fir-tree, tall and sombre, 

Sobbed through all its robes of darkness, 

Rattled like a shore with pebbles, 

Answered wailing, answered weeping, 

"Take my balm, O Hiawatha!"

        And he took the tears of balsam, 

Took the resin of the Fir-tree, 

Smeared therewith each seam and fissure, 

Made each crevice safe from water.

        "Give me of your quills, O Hedgehog! 

All your quills, O Kagh, the Hedgehog! 

I will make a necklace of them, 

Make a girdle for my beauty, 

And two stars to deck her bosom!"

        From a hollow tree the Hedgehog 

With his sleepy eyes looked at him, 

Shot his shining quills, like arrows, 

Saying with a drowsy murmur, 

Through the tangle of his whiskers, 

"Take my quills, O Hiawatha!"

        From the ground the quills he gathered, 

All the little shining arrows, 

Stained them red and blue and yellow, 

With the juice of roots and berries; 

Into his canoe he wrought them, 

Round its waist a shining girdle, 

Round its bows a gleaming necklace, 

On its breast two stars resplendent.

        Thus the Birch Canoe was builded 

In the valley, by the river,

In the bosom of the forest; 

And the forest's life was in it, 

All its mystery and its magic, 

All the lightness of the birch-tree, 

All the toughness of the cedar, 

All the larch's supple sinews; 

And it floated on the river 

Like a yellow leaf in Autumn, 

Like a yellow water-lily.

        Paddles none had Hiawatha, 

Paddles none he had or needed, 

For his thoughts as paddles served him, 

And his wishes served to guide him;

Swift or slow at will he glided, 

Veered to right or left at pleasure.

        Then he called aloud to Kwasind, 

To his friend, the strong man, Kwasind, 

Saying, "Help me clear this river 

Of its sunken logs and sand-bars."

        Straight into the river Kwasind 

Plunged as if he were an otter, 

Dived as if he were a beaver, 

Stood up to his waist in water, 

To his arm-pits in the river, 

Swam and scouted in the river, 

Tugged at sunken logs and branches, 

With his hands he scooped the sand-bars, 

With his feet the ooze and tangle.

        And thus sailed my Hiawatha 

Down the rushing Taquamenaw, 

Sailed through all its bends and windings, 

Sailed through all its deeps and shallows, 

While his friend, the strong man, Kwasind, 

Swam the deeps, the shallows waded.

        Up and down the river went they, 

In and out among its islands, 

Cleared its bed of root and sand-bar, 

Dragged the dead trees from its channel, 

Made its passage safe and certain, 

Made a pathway for the people, 

From its springs among the mountains, 

To the waters of Pauwating, 

To the bay of Taquamenaw.

Lit2Go                                            http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/26/the-last-of-the-mohicans/255/chapter-20/

The Last of the Mohicans 

Chapter 20

by James Fenimore Cooper. 1826, H.C. Carey and I. Lea

Land of Albania! let me bend mine eyes On thee; thou rugged nurse of savage men!
  —Childe Harold

The heavens were still studded with stars, when Hawkeye came to arouse the sleepers. Casting aside their cloaks Munro and Heyward were on their feet while the woodsman was still making his low calls, at the entrance of the rude shelter where they had passed the night. When they issued from beneath its concealment, they found the scout awaiting their appearance nigh by, and the only salutation between them was the significant gesture for silence, made by their sagacious leader.

“Think over your prayers,” he whispered, as they approached him; “for He to whom you make them, knows all tongues; that of the heart, as well as those of the mouth. But speak not a syllable; it is rare for a white voice to pitch itself properly in the woods, as we have seen by the example of that miserable devil, the singer. Come,” he continued, turning toward a curtain of the works; “let us get into the ditch on this side, and be regardful to step on the stones and fragments of wood as you go.”

His companions complied, though to two of them the reasons of this extraordinary precaution were yet a mystery. When they were in the low cavity that surrounded the earthen fort on three sides, they found that passage nearly choked by the ruins. With care and patience, however, they succeeded in clambering after the scout, until they reached the sandy shore of the Horican.

“That’s a trail that nothing but a nose can follow,” said the satisfied scout, looking back along their difficult way; “grass is a treacherous carpet for a flying party to tread on, but wood and stone take no print from a moccasin. Had you worn your armed boots, there might, indeed, have been something to fear; but with the deer–skin suitably prepared, a man may trust himself, generally, on rocks with safety. Shove in the canoe nigher to the land, Uncas; this sand will take a stamp as easily as the butter of the Jarmans on the Mohawk. Softly, lad, softly; it must not touch the beach, or the knaves will know by what road we have left the place.”

The young man observed the precaution; and the scout, laying a board from the ruins to the canoe, made a sign for the two officers to enter. When this was done, everything was studiously restored to its former disorder; and then Hawkeye succeeded in reaching his little birchen vessel, without leaving behind him any of those marks which he appeared so much to dread. Heyward was silent until the Indians had cautiously paddled the canoe some distance from the fort, and within the broad and dark shadows that fell from the eastern mountain on the glassy surface of the lake; then he demanded:

“What need have we for this stolen and hurried departure?”

“If the blood of an Oneida could stain such a sheet of pure water as this we float on,” returned the scout, “your two eyes would answer your own question. Have you forgotten the skulking reptile Uncas slew?”

“By no means. But he was said to be alone, and dead men give no cause for fear.”

“Ay, he was alone in his deviltry! but an Indian whose tribe counts so many warriors, need seldom fear his blood will run without the death shriek coming speedily from some of his enemies.”

“But our presence—the authority of Colonel Munro—would prove sufficient protection against the anger of our allies, especially in a case where the wretch so well merited his fate. I trust in Heaven you have not deviated a single foot from the direct line of our course with so slight a reason!”

“Do you think the bullet of that varlet’s rifle would have turned aside, though his sacred majesty the king had stood in its path?” returned the stubborn scout. “Why did not the grand Frencher, he who is captain–general of the Canadas, bury the tomahawks of the Hurons, if a word from a white can work so strongly on the natur’ of an Indian?”

The reply of Heyward was interrupted by a groan from Munro; but after he had paused a moment, in deference to the sorrow of his aged friend he resumed the subject.

“The marquis of Montcalm can only settle that error with his God,” said the young man solemnly.

“Ay, ay, now there is reason in your words, for they are bottomed on religion and honesty. There is a vast difference between throwing a regiment of white coats atwixt the tribes and the prisoners, and coaxing an angry savage to forget he carries a knife and rifle, with words that must begin with calling him your son. No, no,” continued the scout, looking back at the dim shore of William Henry, which was now fast receding, and laughing in his own silent but heartfelt manner; “I have put a trail of water atween us; and unless the imps can make friends with the fishes, and hear who has paddled across their basin this fine morning, we shall throw the length of the Horican behind us before they have made up their minds which path to take.”

“With foes in front, and foes in our rear, our journey is like to be one of danger.”

“Danger!” repeated Hawkeye, calmly; “no, not absolutely of danger; for, with vigilant ears and quick eyes, we can manage to keep a few hours ahead of the knaves; or, if we must try the rifle, there are three of us who understand its gifts as well as any you can name on the borders. No, not of danger; but that we shall have what you may call a brisk push of it, is probable; and it may happen, a brush, a scrimmage, or some such divarsion, but always where covers are good, and ammunition abundant.”

It is possible that Heyward’s estimate of danger differed in some degree from that of the scout, for, instead of replying, he now sat in silence, while the canoe glided over several miles of water. Just as the day dawned, they entered the narrows of the lake, and stole swiftly and cautiously among their numberless little islands. It was by this road that Montcalm had retired with his army, and the adventurers knew not but he had left some of his Indians in ambush, to protect the rear of his forces, and collect the stragglers. They, therefore, approached the passage with the customary silence of their guarded habits. The beauties of Lake George are well known to every American tourist. In the height of the mountains which surround it, and in artificial accessories, it is inferior to the finest of the Swiss and Italian lakes, while in outline and purity of water it is fully their equal; and in the number and disposition of its isles and islets much superior to them all together. There are said to be some hundreds of islands in a sheet of water less than thirty miles long. The narrows, which connect what may be called, in truth, two lakes, are crowded with islands to such a degree as to leave passages between them frequently of only a few feet in width. The lake itself varies in breadth from one to three miles.

Chingachgook laid aside his paddle; while Uncas and the scout urged the light vessel through crooked and intricate channels, where every foot that they advanced exposed them to the danger of some sudden rising on their progress. The eyes of the Sagamore moved warily from islet to islet, and copse to copse, as the canoe proceeded; and, when a clearer sheet of water permitted, his keen vision was bent along the bald rocks and impending forests that frowned upon the narrow strait.

Heyward, who was a doubly interested spectator, as well from the beauties of the place as from the apprehension natural to his situation, was just believing that he had permitted the latter to be excited without sufficient reason, when the paddle ceased moving, in obedience to a signal from Chingachgook.

“Hugh!” exclaimed Uncas, nearly at the moment that the light tap his father had made on the side of the canoe notified them of the vicinity of danger.

“What now?” asked the scout; “the lake is as smooth as if the winds had never blown, and I can see along its sheet for miles; there is not so much as the black head of a loon dotting the water.”

The Indian gravely raised his paddle, and pointed in the direction in which his own steady look was riveted. Duncan’s eyes followed the motion. A few rods in their front lay another of the wooded islets, but it appeared as calm and peaceful as if its solitude had never been disturbed by the foot of man.

“I see nothing,” he said, “but land and water; and a lovely scene it is.”

“Hist!” interrupted the scout. “Ay, Sagamore, there is always a reason for what you do. ‘Tis but a shade, and yet it is not natural. You see the mist, major, that is rising above the island; you can’t call it a fog, for it is more like a streak of thin cloud—”

“It is vapor from the water.”

“That a child could tell. But what is the edging of blacker smoke that hangs along its lower side, and which you may trace down into the thicket of hazel? ‘Tis from a fire; but one that, in my judgment, has been suffered to burn low.”

“Let us, then, push for the place, and relieve our doubts,” said the impatient Duncan; “the party must be small that can lie on such a bit of land.”

“If you judge of Indian cunning by the rules you find in books, or by white sagacity, they will lead you astray, if not to your death,” returned Hawkeye, examining the signs of the place with that acuteness which distinguished him. “If I may be permitted to speak in this matter, it will be to say, that we have but two things to choose between: the one is, to return, and give up all thoughts of following the Hurons—”

“Never!” exclaimed Heyward, in a voice far too loud for their circumstances.

“Well, well,” continued Hawkeye, making a hasty sign to repress his impatience; “I am much of your mind myself; though I thought it becoming my experience to tell the whole. We must, then, make a push, and if the Indians or Frenchers are in the narrows, run the gauntlet through these toppling mountains. Is there reason in my words, Sagamore?”

The Indian made no other answer than by dropping his paddle into the water, and urging forward the canoe. As he held the office of directing its course, his resolution was sufficiently indicated by the movement. The whole party now plied their paddles vigorously, and in a very few moments they had reached a point whence they might command an entire view of the northern shore of the island, the side that had hitherto been concealed.

“There they are, by all the truth of signs,” whispered the scout, “two canoes and a smoke. The knaves haven’t yet got their eyes out of the mist, or we should hear the accursed whoop. Together, friends! we are leaving them, and are already nearly out of whistle of a bullet.”

The well–known crack of a rifle, whose ball came skipping along the placid surface of the strait, and a shrill yell from the island, interrupted his speech, and announced that their passage was discovered. In another instant several savages were seen rushing into canoes, which were soon dancing over the water in pursuit. These fearful precursors of a coming struggle produced no change in the countenances and movements of his three guides, so far as Duncan could discover, except that the strokes of their paddles were longer and more in unison, and caused the little bark to spring forward like a creature possessing life and volition.

“Hold them there, Sagamore,” said Hawkeye, looking coolly backward over this left shoulder, while he still plied his paddle; “keep them just there. Them Hurons have never a piece in their nation that will execute at this distance; but ‘killdeer’ has a barrel on which a man may calculate.”

The scout having ascertained that the Mohicans were sufficient of themselves to maintain the requisite distance, deliberately laid aside his paddle, and raised the fatal rifle. Three several times he brought the piece to his shoulder, and when his companions were expecting its report, he as often lowered it to request the Indians would permit their enemies to approach a little nigher. At length his accurate and fastidious eye seemed satisfied, and, throwing out his left arm on the barrel, he was slowly elevating the muzzle, when an exclamation from Uncas, who sat in the bow, once more caused him to suspend the shot.

“What, now, lad?” demanded Hawkeye; “you save a Huron from the death–shriek by that word; have you reason for what you do?”

Uncas pointed toward a rocky shore a little in their front, whence another war canoe was darting directly across their course. It was too obvious now that their situation was imminently perilous to need the aid of language to confirm it. The scout laid aside his rifle, and resumed the paddle, while Chingachgook inclined the bows of the canoe a little toward the western shore, in order to increase the distance between them and this new enemy. In the meantime they were reminded of the presence of those who pressed upon their rear, by wild and exulting shouts. The stirring scene awakened even Munro from his apathy.

“Let us make for the rocks on the main,” he said, with the mien of a tired soldier, “and give battle to the savages. God forbid that I, or those attached to me and mine, should ever trust again to the faith of any servant of the Louis’s!”

“He who wishes to prosper in Indian warfare,” returned the scout, “must not be too proud to learn from the wit of a native. Lay her more along the land, Sagamore; we are doubling on the varlets, and perhaps they may try to strike our trail on the long calculation.”

Hawkeye was not mistaken; for when the Hurons found their course was likely to throw them behind their chase they rendered it less direct, until, by gradually bearing more and more obliquely, the two canoes were, ere long, gliding on parallel lines, within two hundred yards of each other. It now became entirely a trial of speed. So rapid was the progress of the light vessels, that the lake curled in their front, in miniature waves, and their motion became undulating by its own velocity. It was, perhaps, owing to this circumstance, in addition to the necessity of keeping every hand employed at the paddles, that the Hurons had not immediate recourse to their firearms. The exertions of the fugitives were too severe to continue long, and the pursuers had the advantage of numbers. Duncan observed with uneasiness, that the scout began to look anxiously about him, as if searching for some further means of assisting their flight.

“Edge her a little more from the sun, Sagamore,” said the stubborn woodsman; “I see the knaves are sparing a man to the rifle. A single broken bone might lose us our scalps. Edge more from the sun and we will put the island between us.”

The expedient was not without its use. A long, low island lay at a little distance before them, and, as they closed with it, the chasing canoe was compelled to take a side opposite to that on which the pursued passed. The scout and his companions did not neglect this advantage, but the instant they were hid from observation by the bushes, they redoubled efforts that before had seemed prodigious. The two canoes came round the last low point, like two coursers at the top of their speed, the fugitives taking the lead. This change had brought them nigher to each other, however, while it altered their relative positions.

“You showed knowledge in the shaping of a birchen bark, Uncas, when you chose this from among the Huron canoes,” said the scout, smiling, apparently more in satisfaction at their superiority in the race than from that prospect of final escape which now began to open a little upon them. “The imps have put all their strength again at the paddles, and we are to struggle for our scalps with bits of flattened wood, instead of clouded barrels and true eyes. A long stroke, and together, friends.”

“They are preparing for a shot,” said Heyward; “and as we are in a line with them, it can scarcely fail.”

“Get you, then, into the bottom of the canoe,” returned the scout; “you and the colonel; it will be so much taken from the size of the mark.”

Heyward smiled, as he answered:

“It would be but an ill example for the highest in rank to dodge, while the warriors were under fire.”

“Lord! Lord! That is now a white man’s courage!” exclaimed the scout; “and like to many of his notions, not to be maintained by reason. Do you think the Sagamore, or Uncas, or even I, who am a man without a cross, would deliberate about finding a cover in the scrimmage, when an open body would do no good? For what have the Frenchers reared up their Quebec, if fighting is always to be done in the clearings?”

“All that you say is very true, my friend,” replied Heyward; “still, our customs must prevent us from doing as you wish.”

A volley from the Hurons interrupted the discourse, and as the bullets whistled about them, Duncan saw the head of Uncas turned, looking back at himself and Munro. Notwithstanding the nearness of the enemy, and his own great personal danger, the countenance of the young warrior expressed no other emotion, as the former was compelled to think, than amazement at finding men willing to encounter so useless an exposure. Chingachgook was probably better acquainted with the notions of white men, for he did not even cast a glance aside from the riveted look his eye maintained on the object by which he governed their course. A ball soon struck the light and polished paddle from the hands of the chief, and drove it through the air, far in the advance. A shout arose from the Hurons, who seized the opportunity to fire another volley. Uncas described an arc in the water with his own blade, and as the canoe passed swiftly on, Chingachgook recovered his paddle, and flourishing it on high, he gave the war–whoop of the Mohicans, and then lent his strength and skill again to the important task.

The clamorous sounds of “Le Gros Serpent!” “La Longue Carabine!” “Le Cerf Agile!” burst at once from the canoes behind, and seemed to give new zeal to the pursuers. The scout seized “killdeer” in his left hand, and elevating it about his head, he shook it in triumph at his enemies. The savages answered the insult with a yell, and immediately another volley succeeded. The bullets pattered along the lake, and one even pierced the bark of their little vessel. No perceptible emotion could be discovered in the Mohicans during this critical moment, their rigid features expressing neither hope nor alarm; but the scout again turned his head, and, laughing in his own silent manner, he said to Heyward:

“The knaves love to hear the sounds of their pieces; but the eye is not to be found among the Mingoes that can calculate a true range in a dancing canoe! You see the dumb devils have taken off a man to charge, and by the smallest measurement that can be allowed, we move three feet to their two!”

Duncan, who was not altogether as easy under this nice estimate of distances as his companions, was glad to find, however, that owing to their superior dexterity, and the diversion among their enemies, they were very sensibly obtaining the advantage. The Hurons soon fired again, and a bullet struck the blade of Hawkeye’s paddle without injury.

“That will do,” said the scout, examining the slight indentation with a curious eye; “it would not have cut the skin of an infant, much less of men, who, like us, have been blown upon by the heavens in their anger. Now, major, if you will try to use this piece of flattened wood, I’ll let ‘killdeer’ take a part in the conversation.”

Heyward seized the paddle, and applied himself to the work with an eagerness that supplied the place of skill, while Hawkeye was engaged in inspecting the priming of his rifle. The latter then took a swift aim and fired. The Huron in the bows of the leading canoe had risen with a similar object, and he now fell backward, suffering his gun to escape from his hands into the water. In an instant, however, he recovered his feet, though his gestures were wild and bewildered. At the same moment his companions suspended their efforts, and the chasing canoes clustered together, and became stationary. Chingachgook and Uncas profited by the interval to regain their wind, though Duncan continued to work with the most persevering industry. The father and son now cast calm but inquiring glances at each other, to learn if either had sustained any injury by the fire; for both well knew that no cry or exclamation would, in such a moment of necessity have been permitted to betray the accident. A few large drops of blood were trickling down the shoulder of the Sagamore, who, when he perceived that the eyes of Uncas dwelt too long on the sight, raised some water in the hollow of his hand, and washing off the stain, was content to manifest, in this simple manner, the slightness of the injury.

“Softly, softly, major,” said the scout, who by this time had reloaded his rifle; “we are a little too far already for a rifle to put forth its beauties, and you see yonder imps are holding a council. Let them come up within striking distance—my eye may well be trusted in such a matter— and I will trail the varlets the length of the Horican, guaranteeing that not a shot of theirs shall, at the worst, more than break the skin, while ‘killdeer’ shall touch the life twice in three times.”

“We forget our errand,” returned the diligent Duncan. “For God’s sake let us profit by this advantage, and increase our distance from the enemy.”

“Give me my children,” said Munro, hoarsely; “trifle no longer with a father’s agony, but restore me my babes.”

Long and habitual deference to the mandates of his superiors had taught the scout the virtue of obedience. Throwing a last and lingering glance at the distant canoes, he laid aside his rifle, and, relieving the wearied Duncan, resumed the paddle, which he wielded with sinews that never tired. His efforts were seconded by those of the Mohicans and a very few minutes served to place such a sheet of water between them and their enemies, that Heyward once more breathed freely.

The lake now began to expand, and their route lay along a wide reach, that was lined, as before, by high and ragged mountains. But the islands were few, and easily avoided. The strokes of the paddles grew more measured and regular, while they who plied them continued their labor, after the close and deadly chase from which they had just relieved themselves, with as much coolness as though their speed had been tried in sport, rather than under such pressing, nay, almost desperate, circumstances.

Instead of following the western shore, whither their errand led them, the wary Mohican inclined his course more toward those hills behind which Montcalm was known to have led his army into the formidable fortress of Ticonderoga. As the Hurons, to every appearance, had abandoned the pursuit, there was no apparent reason for this excess of caution. It was, however, maintained for hours, until they had reached a bay, nigh the northern termination of the lake. Here the canoe was driven upon the beach, and the whole party landed. Hawkeye and Heyward ascended an adjacent bluff, where the former, after considering the expanse of water beneath him, pointed out to the latter a small black object, hovering under a headland, at the distance of several miles.

“Do you see it?” demanded the scout. “Now, what would you account that spot, were you left alone to white experience to find your way through this wilderness?”

“But for its distance and its magnitude, I should suppose it a bird. Can it be a living object?”

”’Tis a canoe of good birchen bark, and paddled by fierce and crafty Mingoes. Though Providence has lent to those who inhabit the woods eyes that would be needless to men in the settlements, where there are inventions to assist the sight, yet no human organs can see all the dangers which at this moment circumvent us. These varlets pretend to be bent chiefly on their sun–down meal, but the moment it is dark they will be on our trail, as true as hounds on the scent. We must throw them off, or our pursuit of Le Renard Subtil may be given up. These lakes are useful at times, especially when the game take the water,” continued the scout, gazing about him with a countenance of concern; “but they give no cover, except it be to the fishes. God knows what the country would be, if the settlements should ever spread far from the two rivers. Both hunting and war would lose their beauty.”

“Let us not delay a moment, without some good and obvious cause.”

“I little like that smoke, which you may see worming up along the rock above the canoe,” interrupted the abstracted scout. “My life on it, other eyes than ours see it, and know its meaning. Well, words will not mend the matter, and it is time that we were doing.”

Hawkeye moved away from the lookout, and descended, musing profoundly, to the shore. He communicated the result of his observations to his companions, in Delaware, and a short and earnest consultation succeeded. When it terminated, the three instantly set about executing their new resolutions.

The canoe was lifted from the water, and borne on the shoulders of the party, they proceeded into the wood, making as broad and obvious a trail as possible. They soon reached the water–course, which they crossed, and, continuing onward, until they came to an extensive and naked rock. At this point, where their footsteps might be expected to be no longer visible, they retraced their route to the brook, walking backward, with the utmost care. They now followed the bed of the little stream to the lake, into which they immediately launched their canoe again. A low point concealed them from the headland, and the margin of the lake was fringed for some distance with dense and overhanging bushes. Under the cover of these natural advantages, they toiled their way, with patient industry, until the scout pronounced that he believed it would be safe once more to land.

The halt continued until evening rendered objects indistinct and uncertain to the eye. Then they resumed their route, and, favored by the darkness, pushed silently and vigorously toward the western shore. Although the rugged outline of mountain, to which they were steering, presented no distinctive marks to the eyes of Duncan, the Mohican entered the little haven he had selected with the confidence and accuracy of an experienced pilot.

The boat was again lifted and borne into the woods, where it was carefully concealed under a pile of brush. The adventurers assumed their arms and packs, and the scout announced to Munro and Heyward that he and the Indians were at last in readiness to proceed. 

A brief recording of canoe paddling and three relevant Native American songs as well as recordings of “Hiawaths’s Sailing” and Chapter 20 of The Last of the Mohicans are available at iTunes.

          1. Canoe Paddling Sounds

          2. Paddle Dance Song, Grand Rhonde And Chinook Canoe Family                         (2008)

          3. Canoe Paddle Song, Peter Webster, Nootka Indian Music of the                            Pacific Northwest (1974)           

          4. Maliseet Canoe Song, Phoebe Legere & Ken Little Hawk (2010)

          5. The Song of Hiawatha: By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Chapter VI                 Hiawatha’s Sailing (1956) 

          6. The Last of the Mohicans, Chapter 20. Lit2Go, Florida Center for                       Instructional Technology

LJR Dec.2013