Canoelit #2

  BARK, SKIN AND CEDAR
 By James Raffan
 HarperCollins, Toronto
 1999 274pp. $30
 ISBN 0-00-255730-4

 THE CANOE IN CANADIAN CULTURES
 Edited by John Jennings, Bruce Hodgins, Doreen Small
 Natural Heritage, Toronto
 1999 300pp. $25.95
 ISBN 1-896219-48-9

 Two books celebrating that most essential and beloved (certainly in these pages) Canadian icon: the canoe, have arrived on the bookstands together. And the coincidence doesn't end there.
 This paddling tandem each have their roots deep in the historic base of Canadian canoeing tradition - eastern Ontario and particularly Peterborough. Both books celebrate in their own way, the canoe as representing a premier Canadian symbol. They are both the derived progeny of noted universities and each has a definite scholarly and intellectualized bearing.
 That said, they will definitely interest any subscribers of Che-Mun and possibly scare away droves of ordinary Canadians.
 Jim Raffan brings us Bark, Skin and Cedar which thoughtfully includes a photo of a canoe on the cover so people won't be confused. A professor in 'outdoor and experiential education' at Queen's University, Raffan is fast becoming the noted chronicler of all things canoeing - Canadian-wise that is.
 Raffan is a scholarly Hoover upright. He vacuums up every tidbit, notion, thought, comment and anecdote about his subject and thoughtfully footnotes them for the interested reader. (For the record, there are 272 footnotes in this book)
 I happened to sit across the aisle from him at the last Wilderness Canoeing Association Annual Wilderness Symposium. These mid-winter talks are fraught with often great presentations from speakers who are not on the "circuit". That means you can mine of lot of interesting tidbits of info you might not always come across. As a former note taker myself, I was always hindered by the fact these talks are given in almost total darkness, the only illumination being the screen reflection from a variety of variously exposured transparencies.
 Raffan had that problem licked. His pen had a light on its tip and I can see why. There was some great stuff to be had here and he is to be commended for getting it all down. As a scholar he gets as much pleasure in citing his references as we do in saying we learned it ourself.
 Raffan is great to read. He doesn't have a poetic style but his prose is solid and very enjoyable - and, as stated, superbly researched. He covers everything from dragon boats to summer camps. There are scores of anecdotes and events all of which go into what is the canoe. The book makes a sweep from coast to coast picking up a theme in each area. From the Mic Mac canoes to the selling of the myth. As we saw in a recent book by Jamie Benedickson, Idleness, Water and a Canoe, the conception of a canoe to the average Canadian is more of a thought than a thwart. Raffan spends some time getting into that myth making much of which started in the the 1920s and survives extant.
 The story of CPR publicist John Murray Gibbon is a classic. He's described by Raffan as a mixture of Pierre Berton and P.T. Barnum. This educated and energetic fellow popularized what became the 'Mountie, moon and canoe' vision that Hollywood, and consequently the rest of the world, gave the Canadian north.
 We should be thankful to Raffan for giving us such a thoughtful and entertaining examination to our beloved craft.
 The Canoe in Canadian Cultures might perhaps be titled Canexus II. It is the direct result of the 1996 Canexus conference - 10 years after the first one was held at Queen's University. This is Trent University country and part of the event was held there and some of the writers were Trent people.
 It's theme aims to show the canoe as the uniting force among Canada's three founding peoples, English, French and Aboriginal. Almost all of the writing centers on the first of these three.
 This book is a series of 18 essays which were given at the conference. I'm please to note that half the writers are Che-Mun subscribers. Jim Raffan makes his appearance here as well. (That boy is everywhere!) His book on Bill Mason (Fire in the Bones) was launched at Canexus and he presented a paper on Bill. Becky Mason also is included here with some moving thoughts about her dad.
 This is of those box of chocolates books. You will pick out the ones that you know you like, try a few on a gamble and spit out the rest, leaving some untouched. I was naturally drawn to the stuff that would likely appear in these pages. There is quite a variety; from Bert Horwood's thoughtful The Dao of Paddling, though Gwyneth Hoyle's fascinating The Dark Side of the Canoe to Bob Henderson's off the wall The Canoe as a Way to Another Story. David Finch's piece on Raymond Patterson of Dangerous River fame was fascinating as I knew little about the man who wrote that classic book on early travel on the Nahanni.
 
 LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK
 By William Laird McKinley
 St. Martin's Griffin Press
 1999 168pp. C$18.99
 ISBN 0-312-20655-0
 
 The spectacular recent success of disaster books and movies no doubt caused his little book to resurface 23 years after it was first published.
 This first hand account of the sinking of the Karluk, the boat used by Stefannson in his epic Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913-18, is a fascinating and grim piece of history. The boat was crushed in 1913 at the start of the expedition when Stefannson was away. The 25 survivors escaped and were marooned for seven months before help arrived. Eleven people died. A unique and grisly first hand account of northern history.