CONSTRUCTING A RAFT. 41 



which should serve as a substitute. In this we found 

 but little difficulty. On the eastern shore, tall fir 

 trees of all sizes may be found, many of which are 

 dead, or as the woodmen term it, dry. These are ex- 

 ceedingly light and buoyant, and four or five of them, 

 of the diameter of eight or ten inches at the butt, and 

 some twenty -five feet in length, laid side by side in 

 the water, and properly fastened together by cross- 

 pieces pinned to them, will easily float the weight of 

 two men. My guide, with his axe and augur, soon 

 succeeded in constructing, such a raft, upon which we 

 fashioned a rude bench at each end, on which to sit. 

 Having provided ourselves with setting poles, we 

 shoved into the lake. Here, as elsewhere, we found 

 no difficulty in supplying ourselves with trout. We 

 poled along the margin of the lake, until in rounding 

 a rocky promontory, we found ourselves suddenly in 

 water too deep for the length of our poles. A breeze, 

 not very strong to be sure, was blowing from the 

 shore, and our raft, under its impulse, put out for the 

 centre of the lake. Having no paddles, and being 

 unable to control our raft, we were forced to see our- 

 selves floating away towards the opposite shore, three- 

 *burths of a mile distant Patience was the remedy 



