AD I RON D AC. 105 



our professor of woodcraft had both in read- 

 iness. From a young yellow birch, an oar 

 took shape with marvellous rapidity, trimmed 

 and smoothed with a neatness almost fastid- 

 ious, no makeshift, but an instrument fit- 

 ted for the delicate work it was to perform. 

 A jack was made with equal skill and 

 speed. A stout staff about three feet long was 

 placed upright in the bow of the boat, and 

 held to its place by a horizontal bar, through 

 a hole in which it turned easily : a half wheel 

 eight or ten inches in diameter, cut from a 

 large chip, was placed at the top, around 

 which was bent a new section of birch bark, 

 thus forming a rude semicircular reflector. 

 Three candles placed within the circle com- 

 pleted the jack. With moss and boughs, 

 seats were arranged one in the bow for 

 the marksman, and one in the stern for the 

 oarsman. A meal of frogs and squirrels was 

 a good preparation, and when darkness came, 

 all were keenly alive to the opportunity it 

 brought. Though by no means an expert in 

 the use of the gun, adding the superlative 

 degree of enthusiasm to only the positive 

 degree of skill, yet it seemed tacitly 

 agreed that I should act as marksman, and 

 kill the deer, if such was to be our luck. 



