190 THE THOUSAND ISLES. 



times passing entirely over projecting rocks or small 

 islands, and in one instance carrying off a lighthouse 

 that had been located near their path. One end often 

 runs far on shore, when the other swings round and drags 

 it off; vessels of all kinds keep clear of them, if possible. 

 They are bound together with withes made by twisting 

 saplings, and so strongly that they rarely give way when 

 rushing over rocks or descending rapids that are almost 

 cataracts. Sometimes they are composed of logs, some- 

 times of rough staves. The latter are bound together in 

 cribs, and instead of three drams making one crib, as is 

 common in New York, three cribs make a dram ; and the 

 wood measure of the North may be said to be 

 1000 Staves make one Crib ; 

 3 Cribs make one Dram ; 

 20 Drams make one Raft. 



And no one has any scruples whatever, for the country 

 being poverty itself, the people are neither elevated nor 

 moral, and eke out a scanty subsistence by rafting and 

 fishing. 



The people use for fishing, boats on the plan of a small 

 whaleboat, built of thin cedar, and the surprise of my 

 companions upon their first visit to this desolate region, 

 was by no means small on discovering that they were 

 expected to fish with three lines at once, holding one in 

 their hand and having a rod projecting from each side 

 of the boat in addition. We had arrived the evening 

 before at Clayton, and, like true knights, finding there 

 was to be a ball given by the natives, had attended it, 

 and danced till the wee hours, with pretty little bright- 

 eyed girls, strange dances called by Indian names, among 



