Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/178

* CANOE. 144 CANON. therefore not surprising to find specimens of them in the familiar dugout of the Southern States. The ishmds of the Pacific, depending upon the adjacent seas for material sustenance, and having little available timber, naturally pro- duced the first builders who made a canoe out of planks. Those in Samoa are regularly built of several pieces of wood of irregular shape, fas- tened together with sennit and cemented all over with gum from the bark of tlie breadfruit-tree, to prevent their leaking. Where the South Sea Islanders had larger timber, as did the I'liili])- pine Islanders, they built from a single tree- trunk, with an outrigger, and sometimes two, excepting on the canals and rivers, where the space was too narrow for them. In some of the islands two canoes were lashed together, like the catamaran (q.v.); in others, fi.xcd outriggers extended from each side. In fact, the design and method of propelling the canoes of Polynesia are endless in vi'.riely, but all masterpieces of adap- tability to the conditions of their locality and their use. A'ondcrful sailors, too, are the natives who, in them, luidertakc even long sea voyages. far out of the sight of land, in passing from one group of islands to another. The coasts of tlio mainland of Siam, Burma, and China swarm ■with canoes. America, too, has a great variety, from the skin-covered bones which the Eskimo paddles in the Arctic seas to the shallow canoe which the Seminole poles in the Everglades of Florida. But probably the perfection of canoe- building in America was accomplished by the primitive inhabitants of the wilderness of waters in the great Northwest, who stretched the bark of the birch over a framework of marvelous lines and produced a craft which for lightness, safety. and endurance has no equal in the world: and lightness tells where the necessities of portaging over heights of land, from watershed to water- shed, and around waterfalls or rapids, is a fre- quent necessity. In this canoe the canoeist kneels facing the bow and applies the force of his paddle either on one side entirely, correcting its force by trailing it as a rudder, or alternately first on one side and then on the other. It is possible to paddle one of these canoes from Lake George to the Gulf of Jlexico; and if the canoeist turned north instead of soutli he could go to the Arctic Sea. Modern canoeing as a sport largely owes its popularity to two men in England who built canoes capable of being either paddled or sailed. and took long [)leasure journeys in tbcni — John Macgregur in the Itob Roy Ijclween 18(i and 1869, and Baden-Powell in the yautilus. The sport rapidly spread on both sides of the Atlan- tic, dividing itself into two schools, sailing and paddling, and naturally into two classes of de- signs. The Canadian (or birch-bark pattern), open and undecked, built of basswood or cedar, or even |)apcr or canvas, was chosen by the ))ad- dliiig fraternity. The sailors took for their first ideas the two English boats, the Rob I'oi/, a lap- streak built of cedar strips, about 14 feet long by 20 indies broad, excellent for easy rivers and coasting, but bad for rapids and portaging, or the ynHtilus, which was designed exclusively for sailing. American ingenuity soon busied itself with inventions, and every device which could lessen weight was adopted. Charles B. Vaux in- vented the stationary deck seat and tiller about 1S82. Paul Butler added, four vears later, the sliding seat, on which the canoeist balances away out over the side of the boat, more like an acro- bat than a .sailor. Then fciUowcd years ot elab- oration in reefing and lowering sails, ending with the adoiition of standing sails which cannot be lowered or reefed; and experiments with folding centreboards without number. Finally, the «ell or cockpit was done away with, save a depression in the deck, of small size, and some six inches deep. This tendency to convert the canoe into a machine, and the consecpicnt winning of every con- tent by the few men wliii could handle them, has been largely responsible f(U' the lessened interest in canoe-racing contests, bvit as a pleasant sport and sunuucr pastime it still numbers its devotees by thousands. In America, the Xew York Canoe Club was founded in 1871. The American Canoe Associa- tion holds an animal meeting extending over a fortnight, the first week of which is devoted to camping out and cruising, and the second to rac- ing. It associates the Northern (Canadian .sso- ciation. with 47 clubsl. the Eastern (.tlantic. with ."52 clubs), the Central (with 2(i clubs), and the Western. Each of these divisions holds sec- tional meetings, but numerous clubs exist which do not belong to any association. In Great Britain, the Royal Canoe Club was formed in 1806, and it has ever since been the principal organization, with headquarters at Kingston-on-Thames, near London. There is an- other, the British Canoe Association, which de- votes its attention entirely to cruising. Consult: JIacgregor. A Tliousdiid Miles in the Rol) Roy, The Rob Roy on the Baltic, and The Rob Roy on the Jordan and the Red iSea (Lon- don, 1874) ; Baden-Powell. Canoe Traveling (London, 1871); Holding, Watery Wanderings (London. 1886); Canoeing and Camping Out (Bell's Handbooks, London, 1893) ; V-.mx,' Canoe Handling (Xew York, 1888); Henshall, Camp- ing and Canoeing in I'lorida (Cincinnati. 1884) ; Neide, The Canoe Aurora's Cruise from the Adi- rcndacks to the Gulf (New York, 1885) ; Ste- phens. Canoe and Boat Building (New York, 181I11. CANON (OF. canone. Late Lat. canonicus, from Lat. eunon, rule. Gk. knroV, kaywn, straight bar, rule, norm l. . ecclesiastic not belonging to any of the religious orders, but living in a com- nuinity under a definite rule of life. As early as the Fourth Century. Eusebius of Vercelli (died c.;571 ) united the clergy of his see city into such a community, and the exam])le was followed in the Fifth by Saint .ugustine at Hippo. There are indications of the early existence of the insti- tution at Tours, at Kheims, and at the Latcran in Rome: but it was not common until the end of the Eighth Century. Its origin is sometimes erroneously ascribed to Chrodegang. Bishop of Jletz from 742 to 70f>: Init his real service was the reduction to writing of a rule of life, which was adopted by many other bodies of canons. It was taken partly fron the rule of Saint Bene- dict (he was a Benedictine himself), and partly from the traditions of the Lateran canons. With some adaptations by the deacon Amalarius of Aletz. it was confirmed by Louis le Di'bonnaire in the great council of Ai'x-la-Chapelle. in 810 or 817, as binding throughout the Frankish domin- ions, liidcr this rule the cam)ns livcil under one roof, with a conunon table: the regular em- L