324 
A JOURNEY TO THE 
are as flippery as an otter, and ferve them as — 
temporary fledges while on the barren ground ; 
but when they arrive at any woods, they then — 
make proper fledges, with thin boards of the 
larch-tree, generally known in Hudfon’s Bay by 
the name of Juniper. 
Thofe fledges are of various fizes, according to 
the ftrength of the perfons who are to haul them: 
fome I have feen were not lefs than twelve or 
fourteen feet long, and fifteen or fixteen inches 
wide, but in general they do not exceed eight or — 
nine feet in length, and twelve or fourteen inches | 
in breadth. 
The Boatids of which thofe flees are compof — 
ed are not more than a quarter ofan inch thick, 
and feldom exceed five or fix inches in width; 
as broader would be very unhandy for the Indi- 
ans to work, who have no other tools than an or- 
dinary knife, turned up a little at the point, 
from which it acquires the name of Bafe-hoth 
among the Northern Indians, but among the © 
Southern tribes it is called Mo-co-toggan. The 
boards are fewed together with thongs of parch- _ 
ment deer-fkin, and feveral crofs bars of wood © 
are fewed on the upper fide, which ferves both 
todtrengthen the fledge and fecure the ground- — 
lafhing, to which the load is always faftened by 
other fmaller thongs, or ftripes of leather. The 
head or fore-part of the fledge is turned up fo asto | 
form a femi-circle, of at leaft fifteen or twenty in- — 
ches diameter. This prevents the carriage from 
diying into light fnow, and enables it to flide over — 
the 
