190 THE THOUSAND ISLES. 
times passing entirely over projecting rocks or small 
islands, and in one instance carrying off a lighthouse 
that had been located near their path. One end often 
runs far on shore, when the other swings round and drags 
it off; vessels of all kinds keep clear of them, if possible. 
They are bound together with withes made by twisting 
saplings, and so strongly that they rarely give way when 
rushing over rocks or descending rapids that are almost 
cataracts. Sometimes they are composed of logs, some- 
times of rough staves. The latter are bound together in 
cribs, and instead of three drams making one crib, as is 
common in New York, three cribs make a dram ; and the 
wood measure of the E'orth may be said to be 
1000 Staves make one Crib ; 
3 Cribs make one Dram ; 
20 Drams make one Kaft. 
And no one has any scruples whatever, for the country- 
being poverty itself, the people are neither elevated nor 
moral, and eke out a scanty subsistence by rafting and 
fishing. 
The people use for fishing, boats on the plan of a small 
whaleboat, built of thin cedar, and the surprise of my 
companions upon their first visit to this desolate region, 
was by no means small on discovering that they were 
expected to fish with three lines at once, holding one in 
their hand and having a rod projecting from each side 
of the boat in addition. "We had arrived the evening 
before at Clayton, and, like true knights, finding there 
was to be a ball given by the natives, had attended it, 
and danced till the wee hours, with pretty little bright- 
eyed girls, strange dances called by Indian names, among 
