THE HAMILTON EIVER AND THE GRAND FALLS 161 



In closing this brief description of the Hamilton River, 

 a few words of advice may be given to intending visitors. 

 At the present time no facilities exist on Hamilton Inlet 

 for a trip inland. The white men living about the inlet are 

 unaccustomed to canoes, and use heavy sea-boats for their 

 short trips inland. For an extended journey to the in- 

 terior, canoes are required, and, in my experience for such 

 work, the best are built of cedar; these are nearly as light 

 as the Indian bark canoes, and are much more enduring. 

 They should be built larger and deeper than the ordinary 

 pleasure canoe, which is an abomination on a serious ex- 

 ploratory trip. A good size is nineteen feet long, forty 

 inches wide, and about eighteen inches deep. Such a 

 canoe will take a load of twelve hundred pounds with the 

 crew of three or four persons, without danger, through 

 heavy rapids and across windy lake stretches, where the 

 ordinary canoe could not venture. These canoes weigh 

 about one hundred and twenty-five pounds, and are easily 

 carried by two men. An ordinary camp equipment, in- 

 cluding mosquito tent and plenty of good blankets, is all 

 that is required. The provisions should be as simple as 

 possible, consisting chiefly of pork, bacon, flour, and beans, 

 along with tea and sugar. Condensed foods may be good 

 for rations on forced marches, where nothing else is avail- 

 able, but they are highly unsatisfactory to canoemen work- 

 ing hard upstream, who must have a full weight of three 

 pounds of solid food a day. A few tinned luxuries may be 

 taken if the trip does not exceed six weeks in duration, 

 a good rule to follow is an allowance of three pounds per 

 man, together with the limit of four hundred pounds' weight 

 for each canoeman ascending a river, so that if two men 



