For the Benefit of City Nimrods 



admit sublime ignorance of the ways of the woods, 

 canoeing and camping, and hence give your mentor an 

 opportunity to anticipate resultant situations, than to 

 claim knowledge that you do not possess. He asked 

 you about your footwear because he wishes to make sure 

 that you are going to wear moccasins or rubber-soled 

 shoes in his canoe. Hobnails, leather cleats, or even 

 hard leather-soled shoes, are injurious to the inside of 

 the canoe, upon which the pleasure of your entire trip 

 will depend. It is not a question of merely scratching 

 the varnish with which the craft is finished; it is the 

 possibility of actually splintering or breaking the inside 

 ribs and sheathing, over which the thin canvas bottom 

 is stretched. 



He asks if you can swim because it is important to 

 know, in case of a tip-over (the most expert canoemen 

 occasionally have such an accident), whether his first 

 salvage efforts must be on behalf of the supplies or the 

 passenger. If the latter has told the guide that he 

 can swim, he will naturally be left to his own resources, 

 while the guide is righting the canoe, splashing or bailing 

 the water out of her, and rounding up such floating 

 supplies as can be reached. If the canoeman knows that 

 his *' sport " cannot swim, he will look to the safety of 

 the latter first and the grub last. Apropos of a canoe 

 capsizing: always remember to sit or kneel in the middle, 

 keep down and keep still. Don't try to turn around, 

 stand up, or reach out over the side. Kneeling on the 

 bottom is preferable to sitting perched up on one of the 

 thwarts. If you have admitted that you are inex- 

 perienced in a canoe, the guide is then on the alert for 

 unexpected movements, and can often avert disaster 

 by a timely quirk with paddle or pole. Remember that 

 a canoe, while most useful and seaworthy when properly 

 handled, is no life-raft nor beamy rowboat. It is 



49 D 



