on fisheries, on every
aspect of maritime administration, and, most of all, on navies, are
very abundant. But, so far, none of them seems to have been devoted
exclusively to the Canadian part of these various themes, with the
single exception of a purely naval work, _The Logs of the Conquest of
Canada_, by the present author, who has consequently been obliged to
write a good deal from his own experience with paddle, sail, and steam.
Of course there are many excellent articles, some of considerable
length, in the Transactions of several learned societies, like the
Royal Society of Canada, the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec,
the Nova Scotia Historical Society, the Ontario Historical Society, and
so on. There are also a certain number of pamphlets and official
bluebooks--like those of the department of {190} Marine and Fisheries;
and there is an immense mass of original evidence stored away in the
Dominion Archives and elsewhere. But books for the public do not seem
to exist; and the suggestion might be hazarded that this whole subject
offers one of the best unworked or little-worked fields remaining open
to the pioneer in Canadian historical research.

Under these circumstances all that can be done here is to name a few of
the many books which either cover some part of the subject incidentally
or deal with what is most closely allied to it.

CANOES are mentioned in every book of travel along the inland
waterways, kayaks in every book about the Eskimos. La Hontan's
_Travels_, though imaginative, give interesting details, as do the much
more sober _Travels_ of Peter Kalm, the Swedish naturalist. Kohl's
_Kitchi-Gami_ is a good book. But the list might be extended
indefinitely.

SAILING CRAFT and STEAMERS require some sort of nautical dictionary,
though even a dictionary sometimes adds to the puzzles of the landsman.
Admiral Smyth's _Sailor's Word Book_, and Dana's _Seaman's Friend_ (as
it is called in the United States), or _Seaman's Manual_ (as it is
called in England), are excellent. Peake's _Rudimentary Treatise on
Shipbuilding_ covers the period so well described in Clark's _Clipper
Ship Era_ and Dana's _Two Years before the Mast_. Sir George Holmes's
{191} _Ancient and Modern Ships_ and Paasch's magnificent polyglot
marine dictionary, _From Keel to Truck_, deal with steam as well as
sail. Lubbock's _Round the Horn before the Mast_ gives a good account
of a modern steel wind-jammer. Patton's artic