The practice of building dugout canoes continues today on the Seminole
reservations in southern Florida.  The Seminole Indians used dugout canoes
for fishing and transportation in the swampy areas where they lived.  The
dugouts were made from a single log , which was cut lengthwise in half and
then hollowed out.  The builder would burn the inside with embers and then
scrape out the burned wood with tools made of bone or stone.  The sides of
the canoe could be carved to as little as one inch thick.  A platform was
added in the rear, where a man could stand and propel the boat with a lone
pole.  In the photograph above, an unfinished dugout canoe made from a
cypress tree rests on two supports while it is being worked on.