126 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES 



is a beautiful little mountain tarn about a quarter of 

 a mile wide and four miles long. It is of glassy 

 transparency, of great depth, and abounds in mount- 

 ain trout, salmon, and salmon trout. It is walled 

 in by abrupt, rocky-faced mountains that rise many 

 hundreds of feet from the water's edge, and on 

 which a scanty growth of laurel, currant bushes, and 

 moss furnish food for the goats. Stunted cedars, 

 balsams, spruces, and pines also grow from small 

 fissures in the rocks that afford sufficient earth to 

 cover their roots. 



The craft on which we were to navigate this lake 

 was an interesting specimen of Indian nautical 

 architecture. It was a raft Seymour had made on a 

 former visit. The stringers were two large, dry, 

 cedar logs, one about sixteen feet long, the other 

 about twenty; these were held together by four 

 poles, or cross-ties, pinned to the logs, and a floor 

 composed of cedar clapboards was laid over all. 

 Pins of hard, dry birch, driven into the logs and tied 

 together at the tops, formed rowlocks, and the craft 

 was provided with four large paddles, or oars, hewed 

 out with an ax. In fact, that was the only tool used 

 in building the raft. The pins had been sharpened 

 to a flat point and driven firmly into sockets made 

 by striking the ax deeply into the log, and instead 

 of ropes, cedar withes were used for lashing. These 

 had been roasted in the fire until tough and flexible, 

 and when thus treated they formed a good substitute 

 for the white sailor's marline or the cow-boy's picket 

 rope. 



We boarded this lubberly old hulk and pulled out 

 up the north shore of the lake just as the morning 



