30 A SUMMER BOATING TRIP 



no little danger. The raft is guided by two immense 

 oars, one before and one behind. I frequently saw 

 these huge implements in the driftwood alongshore, 

 suggesting some colossal race of men. The raftsmen 

 have names of their own. From the upper Delaware, 

 where I had set in, small rafts are run down which 

 they call " colts." They come frisking down at a lively 

 pace. At Hancock they usually couple two rafts 

 together, when I suppose they have a span of colts; 

 or do two colts make one horse? Some parts of the 

 framework of the raft they call " grubs ; " much depends 

 upon these grubs. The lumbermen were and are a 

 hardy, virile race. The Hon. Charles Knapp, of 

 Deposit, now eighty-three years of age, but with the 

 look and step of a man of sixty, told me he had stood 

 nearly all one December day in the water to his waist, 

 reconstructing his raft, which had gone to pieces on 

 the head of an island. Mr. Knapp had passed the first 

 half of his life in Colchester and Hancock, and, 

 although no sportsman, had once taken part in a great 

 bear hunt there. The bear was an enormous one, and 

 was hard pressed by a gang of men and dogs. Their 

 muskets and assaults upon the beast with clubs had 

 made no impression. Mr. Knapp saw where the bear 

 was coming, and he thought he would show them how 

 easy it was to dispatch a bear with a club, if you on\y^ 

 knew where to strike. He had seen how quickly the 

 largest hog would wilt beneath a slight blow across the 

 "small of the back." So, armed with an immense 

 handspike, he took up a position by a large rock that 

 the bear must pass. On she came, panting and nearly 

 exhausted, and at the right moment down came the 

 club with great force upon the small of her back. " If 



