122 CONVERSATIONS ON THE 



are obliged to carry all their baggage upon 

 their backs, and their canoes, too, which they 

 can easily do, because they are so light : a 

 canoe large enough for four persons, weighs 

 only forty or fifty pounds ; but a boat of the 

 same size would weigh more than twice as 

 much ; and besides, the canoes are not as 

 liable to injury as boats, and if they are 

 injured it is more easy to mend them." 



"Uncle Philip, how do they make the 

 canoes ?" 



" Why, in the first place, you know, they 

 must have large pieces of bark : to get these 

 they cut through the bark round the tree in 

 two places ten or twelve feet apart, and then 

 make an upright slit from one to the other ; 

 then they peel off the bark with the help of a 

 wooden wedge, and so they get oif the whole 

 sheet without much trouble : these sheets are 

 generally ten or twelve feet long, and two 

 and a half wide ; then they set up the frame 

 of the canoe, and stitch the sheets together 

 over it very strongly with roots of the white 

 spruce, which are tough and flexible like 

 twine, after they have been split and soaked 

 in water : then they cover over the seams 

 with the resinous gum of the balin of Gilead 



