What are birch bark canoes?
Years ago, before the Europeans arrived, the Natives of north america that lived beside the rivers and lakes, developed a canoe whose skin was the bark of the birch tree. Birch bark can be stripped from the tree in such a way as to make long wide unbroken lengths of bark that can be laid onto the frame of a wooden canoe. Birch bark is water proof (as is all bark) and is also light enough to make carrying the canoe an easier task than the old idea of hollowing out a log.
