254 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 
inches behind where the steersman was placed; 
and its depth was one foot eleven and a quarter 
inches. There were seventy-three hoops of thin 
cedar, and a layer of slender laths of the same 
wood within the frame. These feeble vessels of 
bark will carry twenty-five pieces of goods, each 
weighing ninety pounds, exclusive of the neces- 
sary provision and baggage for the crew of five 
or six men, amounting in the whole to about 
three thousand three hundred pounds’ weight. 
This great lading they annually carry between 
the depéts and the posts, in the interior ; and it 
rarely happens that any accidents occur, if they 
are managed by experienced bowmen and steers- 
men, on whose skill the safety of the canoe 
entirely depends in the rapids and difficult places. 
When a total portage is made, these two men 
carry the canoe, and they often run with it, 
though its weight is estimated at about three 
hundred pounds, exclusive of the poles and oats, 
which are occasionally left in where the distance 
is short. i 
On the 5th, we made an excursion for the pul 
pose of trying our canoe. A heavy gale came on 
in the evening, which caused a great swell in the 
lake, and in crossing these waves we had the 
satisfaction to find that our birchen vessel proved 
an excellent sea-boat. veil 
