NARRATIVE. 43 



This arrangement is indeed on many accounts an advisable one. 

 Otherwise there is a great deal of squabbling among the men, for 

 each is willing to look out for his own canoe and bourgeois, but not 

 for the rest, and they try to shift the labor from one to the other. 

 Except that we usually encamped in the same neighborhood at night, 

 and were sometimes within hail of each other during the day, we 

 might henceforward be considered as four separate parties. 



In our canoe everything settled down after this into a very 

 methodical routine, which I may as well describe here. We were 

 provided in all respects with an independent equipment, embrac- 

 ing provisions for a day or two, viz., salt pork, ham, potatoes, peas, 

 beans, flour, hard bread, rice, sugar, butter, coffee, tea, pickles and 

 condiments. When we landed in the evening, as soon as the canoe 

 was unladen and hauled up, two of the men proceeded to pitch the tent, 

 while the other collected wood, made a fire, put on the tea-kettle, and 

 brought up the mess-chest, which contained tin plates, knives and 

 forks, &c., and also in bottles and tin cases those of our stores that 

 would be injured by moisture. Then they devoted themselves to 

 preparing supper. One kneaded dough in a large tin pan ; another 

 fried or roasted the fish, if we had any, or the pork or ham, if fish 

 was wanting. A large camp-kettle, suspended by a withe from a 

 tripod of sticks, over the fire, contained a piece of pork, and dump- 

 lings, which the men preferred for themselves, or occasionally a rice 

 pudding for us. When all was ready, an India-rubber cloth (which 

 served to protect the luggage, and on occasion for a sail,) was 

 spread on the ground, and the dishes arrayed upon it. Around 

 this we reclined in the classical fashion, and Henry stood by to serve 

 coffee and fetch anything that might be wanted. As to provisions, 

 if I were consulted about the outfit of such a party as ours, I should 

 recommend a full supply of rice and sugar. Maple sugar (which 

 can usually be had in these regions,) is as good as any, for one's taste 

 becomes unsophisticated in the woods ; the rice, I may observe, must 

 be boiled in a bag, and not loose in the camp-kettle, as the Professor's 

 man did it one day, when it came out in the shape of mutton broth 

 without the mutton. Salt pork is very well where one goes a-foot, 

 or paddles his own canoe, but in a life of so little exertion as ours, 

 the system cannot dispose of so much carbon, and rejects it accord- 



