DCHP-2

canot du nord < Canadian French 'canoe of the north' DCHP-2 (November 2016)

• n. — historical, Fur trade

  a birchbark canoe around 7 metres (20 to 25 feet) long, capable of carrying some one-and-a-half tons of goods (see Image 1).

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — A canot du nord required a crew of 6 or 8, and could be carried by two men. These canoes were used by the Hudson's Bay Company during the fur trade (see HBC Heritage reference). The canot du nord's smaller size (in comparison to the canot du maître) made it ideal for the more rugged terrain in the West, where portaging was more often necessary.
  See also Gage-1, s.v. "canot du nord", which is marked "Cdn. French", and OED-3, s.v. "canot", which is described as "relating to the Canadian fur trade".

  See also: canot du maître  Hudson's Bay Company  Montreal canoe  North canoe  portage ((v.))  voyageur canoe  

  • 1828  (1872)  The . . . C[anot] du Nord [measured] about four [fathoms]. . . .
  • 1954  . . . the canot du Nord . . . was ideally suited to the network of small rivers and lakes.
  • 1961  This single tow of ours moved as much cargo . . . as could have been carried in the old days by nine hundred canots du nord.
  • 1975  We…piled into a 25-foot-long fibreglass replica of the Canot du Nord used in the fur trade in the Canadian Northwest.
  • 1996  The smaller canot du nord carried a crew of five or six and a cargo of 1,360 kg over the smaller lakes, rivers and streams of the northwest. 
  • 2006  It was from this precise spot that the swift and agile canot du nord and larger, heavily-laden canot de maitre of the North West Company's fur brigades set out each year for what the French traders called the Pays d'en Haut, the upper country -- a wilderness where furs were obtained.