84 ADIRONDAC. 



ful chink was visible nearly to the water-line. Freed 

 from the tree-top, however, and caulked with a little 

 moss, it floated with two aboard, which was quite 

 enough for our purpose. A jack and an oar were nec- 

 essary to complete the arrangement, and before the sun 

 had set our professor of wood-craft had both in readi- 

 ness. From a young yellow-birch, an oar took shape 

 with marvelous rapidity — trimmed and smoothed with 

 a neatness almost fastidious, — no make-shift, but an 

 instrument fitted for the delicate work it was to per- 

 form. 



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 hori- 

 zontal 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 completed the jack. With moss and boughs 

 seats were arranged — one in the bow for the marks- 

 man, 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 opportu- 

 nity it brought. Though by no means an expert in the 

 use of the gun, — adding the superlative degree of en- 

 thusiasm 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. 



