With Gun ^ Rod in Canada 



Towing Canoes. 



In the two preceding articles I took up canoe handling 

 in swift water with a pole, paddle, and kellick. They 

 presuppose the reader's ability to handle a canoe with a 

 paddle in quiet water. Most out-of-door young people 

 of to-day can paddle, especially if they live in the eastern 

 part of North America. The limited amount of canoe 

 lore accumulated in vacation experiences at summer 

 resorts, while valuable, is usually just enough to get an 

 amateur into difficulties when he or she is confronted 

 by situations that come up when using a canoe for hunt- 

 ing, camping, or fishing in the wilds. 



Unprecedented dilemmas confront even the most prac- 

 tised canoeist. I had a personal experience along that 

 line some years ago. I had been using a canoe since 

 boyhood. I had learned how to handle a canoe in swift 

 water with a pole, and had been up against many con- 

 ditions not encountered by the amateur. I made many 

 mistakes, but had learned how to meet almost every 

 conceivable situation that might arise. 



At this period I bought a motor-boat, to be used 

 principally for towing canoes for hunting and fishing 

 parties around Lake Rossignol and connecting lakes in 

 Nova Scotia. A day or two after the new motor-boat 

 was in commission I was called upon to tow three loaded 

 canoes from my camp at Lowe's Landing, on Lake 

 Rossignol, to the Shelburne River — a distance of six 

 miles across the end of the lake. I found I still had 

 something to learn. 



When the motor-boat was ready to start, the three 

 canoes were loaded each with its own equipment for 

 going up the Shelburne River. I tied the painter of 

 one of the canoes to the towing cleat on the stern of the 

 motor-boat, the other end of the painter being through 



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