108 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



style, but Mrs. Oo-koo-hoo had learned to make it when she 

 and her husband formerly sojourned among the Wood-Crees 

 on the upper Athabasca. 



Supplying the family with socks was a very easy affair, 

 as these articles were simply rectangular shapes, 12 x 18 inches 

 (for adults) cut from duffle — a woollen material resembling an 

 extra closely woven H.B.C. blanket — and worn wrapped about 

 the foot. Such socks have an advantage over the ordinary kind 

 as they are more easily dried, and they wear much longer, as the 

 sock can be shifted about every time the wearer puts it on, thus 

 warding off the evil day when holes appear. 



Amik, during the summer, had made a number of snowshoe 

 frames, and now the women were lacing them. They used 

 fine caribou thongs, especially fine for the heel and toe. I have 

 seen snowshoes that white men have strung with cord; but 

 cord is of little use, for cord, or rope, shrinks when wet and 

 stretches when dry, whereas deerskin stretches when wet and 

 shrinks when drying. Of all deerskin, however, that of caribou 

 stretches less when wet than any other; besides, it is much 

 stronger and that is why it makes the best mesh for snowshoes. 

 In lacing a shoe, a wooden needle is used, but the eye, instead of 

 being at one end, is in the centre. Amik had also started 

 work on several hunting sleds of the toboggan type — the only 

 kind used by the natives of the Great Northern Forest. They 

 are made of birch wood and not of birch bark, as a noted Ameri- 

 can author asserted in one of his books on northern life. 



A hunting sled is made of two thin boards, split from a birch 

 log by using wooden wedges, and the boards are shaved flat and 

 smooth, first with the aid of a very sharp axe and then with a 

 crooked knife. A hunting sled is ten to twelve inches wide, and 

 commonly eight feet long. The widest part of the sled is at the 

 first cross-bar, then it tapers both ways, an inch less at the tail, 

 and four or five inches less at the end of its gracefully curved 

 prow. That is done to prevent jamming among trees. The 



