WATER-CRAFT OF THE KACK-WOODS. 235 



neighboring tribe, and cannot trust their effects in the 

 water ; or they arc perchance migrating to a favorite 

 hunting ground, and have with them all their domestic 

 utensils, their squaws and children. A boat is posi- 

 tively necessary, and it must be made of the materials 

 at hand. A fire is kindled, and by it are laid a number 

 of long slender poles, formed by trimming oflF the limbs 

 of the saplings growing on the margin of the stream. 

 While this is going on, some of the braves start in pur- 

 suit of bufi'alo ; two of the stoutest bulls met with, arc 

 killed and stripped of their skins. These skins are then 

 sewed together, the poles having been well heated, the 

 longest is selected and bent into the proper form for a 

 keel; the ribs are then formed and lashed ^transversely 

 to it, making what -would appear to be the skeleton of a 

 large animal. This skeleton is then placed upon the 

 hairy side of the buffalo skin, when it is drawn around 

 the frame and secured by holes cut in the skin, and 

 hitched on to the ribs ; a little pounded slippery-elm 

 bark is used to caulk the seams, and small pieces of 

 wood cut with a thread-like screw, are inserted in the 

 arrow or bullet holes of the hide. 



Thus, in the course of two or three hours, a hand- 

 some and durable boat is completed, capable of carrying 

 eight or ten men with comfort and safety. 



Passing from the prairie we come to the thick forest, 

 and there we find the most perfect of the water-craft of 

 the back woods — the varieties of the canoe. The in- 



