Moose-Hmiting in Canada. 185 



about seventy or eighty pounds, and will take two men and about 

 six hundred or seven hundred pounds. 



The impedimenta are carried in this manner: A blanket, doubled 

 to a suitable size, is laid upon the ground ; you take your portage- 

 strap, or tump-line, as it is sometimes called, which is composed of 

 strips of webbing or some such material, and is about twelve feet 

 long, a length of about two feet in the center being made of a piece 

 of broad, soft leather ; you lay your line on the blanket so that the 

 leather part projects, and fold the edges of the blanket over either 

 portion of the strap. You then pile up the articles to be carried in 

 the center, double the blanket over them, and by hauling upon the 

 two parts of the strap bring the blanket together at either side, so 

 that nothing can fall out. You then cut a skewer of wood, stick it 

 through the blanket in the center, securely knot the strap at either 

 end, and your pack is made. You have a compact bundle, with the 

 leather portion of the portage-strap projecting like a loop, which is 

 passed over the head and shoulders, and the pack is carried on the 

 back by means of the loop which passes across the chest. If the 

 pack is very heavy, and the distance long, it is usual to make an ad- 

 ditional band out of a handkerchief or something of that kind, to 

 attach it to the bundle, and pass it across the forehead, so as to take 

 some of the pressure off the chest. The regular weight of a Hud- 

 son's Bay Company's package is eighty pounds ; but any Indian or 

 half-breed will carry double this weight for a considerable distance 

 without distress. A tump-line, therefore, forms an essential part of 

 the voyageurs outfit when traveling, and it comes in handy, also, in 

 camp as a clothes-line on which to hang one's socks and moccasins 

 to dry. 



A camp such as that I have attempted to describe is the best that 

 can be built. An ordinary camp is constructed in the same way, but 

 with this difference, that instead of being in the form of a square, it 

 is in the shape of a circle, and the poles on which the bark is laid are 

 stuck into the ground instead of into low walls. There is not half so 

 much room in such a camp as in the former, although the amount of 

 material employed is in both cases the same. It may be objected 

 that the sleeping arrangements cannot be very luxurious in camp. 

 A good bed is certainly an excellent thing, but it is very hard to find 

 a better bed than Nature has provided in the wilderness. It would 



