NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 47 



CHAPTER II. 



Preparations for the expedition — Constitution of the party — Mode of travel in canoes 

 — Embarkation, and incidents of the jom-ney across the Lake, and up the Piiver 

 St. Ch\ir — Head winds encountered on Lake Hm-on — Point aus barques — Cross 

 Saganaw Bay — Delays in ascending the Huron coast^ — Its geology and natural 

 history — Reach Michilimackinac. 



From the moment of our arrival at Detroit, we devoted our- 

 selves, with intensity, to the preparation necessary for entering 

 the wilderness. We were to travel, from this point, by a new 

 mode of conveyance, namely, the Indian bark canoe, called a 

 chimaun, a vehicle not less novel than curious. Constructed of 

 large and thick sheets of the rind of the betula papyracea, or 

 northern birch, which are cut in garment-like folds, and sewed 

 together with the thin fibrous roots of the spruce, on a thin frame- 

 work of cedar ribs, and having gunwales, -with a sheathing of the 

 same material, interposed between the bark and ribs. The seams 

 are carefully gummed with the pitch of the pine. The largest of 

 these canoes are thirty-six feet in length, and seven feet wide in 

 the centre, tapering to a point each way. They carry a mast and 

 sail, and are steered and propelled with light cedar paddles. 

 They are at once light, so as to be readily carried over the port- 

 ages, and so strong as to bear very considerable burdens. Those 

 intended for us, were ordered from the Chippewas of Lake Hui'on, 

 near Saganaw Bay. It was necessary to have mosquito-bars 

 portfolios, knapsacks, and various contrivances, and to make 

 baggage of every sort assume the least possible bulk and space. 

 The public armorer had orders to furnish me suitable hammers 

 and other minerological apparatus for preparing and packino- 

 specimens. The expedition was quite an event in a remote town, 

 and everybody seemed to take an interest in the preparation. A 

 fortnight passed away in these preparations, and in awaiting the 



