Materials Required:—

Some cheap cloth or shelving, some "basketry cane," soft string or fine tape, scissors, penknife, a large strong needle.

The best material for this is thin shelving cloth and it must be made at least twelve inches long. Double your shelving cloth, and outline on it the pattern of the side of the canoe, which should be cut in brown paper; this must be quite straight at the upper sides, not curving as it appears in the drawing. Lay the paper pattern with the line of the bottom of the canoe at the fold of the oilcloth. Now take two long pieces of cane, such as is used for basket-work, and with a large needle, and very thick thread, lash each length of cane along the outsides of the boat from end to end, keeping the shiny side of the cloth outwards. A short thick tapestry needle is best, and the lashing must be steady and even, but if it is difficult to stitch through the cloth an awl or pricker can be used to make the holes before beginning to stitch. Now take another piece of cane and bend about one inch at one end and lash this bent portion to the side of the boat about one-third of the way along the "gunwale" where it is already lashed, and lash it over firmly to this on the inside of the boat. Bend the cane now across to the opposite side of the canoe and meantime tie tightly together the ends of the cane that is lashed from end to end of the boat, and set in this crosspiece so that it keeps the two sides of the boat apart at the right angle. Fix in the second crosspiece likewise, and then lash the open ends of the boat firmly together. The canoe should be rather wide and shallow, or it will be inclined to lie on its side unless ballast is added by weighting it at the bottom. If weight is needed the best thing for this sort of boat is one or two of the heavy lead buttons to be had at a tailor's for weighting garments; they can be lashed on with strong thread through the holes. Quite large canoes can be made in this way, and if a tight "decking" of thin waterproof material be stretched across at both ends from the crosspiece it makes a vessel almost identical with the Eskimo "kayak" which used to be used round the coasts not so very long ago.