188 NARRATIVES. 



other canoes were small ; would carry one man each, and 

 considerable freight. 



Gradually, very gradually, the water grew deeper, and the 

 big canoe would occasionally float a rod or two, without much 

 lifting or tugging at the paddle. But it would soon strike a 

 log. If the log was seven or eight inches below the surface 

 of the water, the canoe could be pushed over, by using the 

 paddles as poles, without much difficulty. If the log was 

 nearer the surface, other tactics had to be resorted to. How 

 we finally learned 



TO NAVIGATE A BOAT IN A SHALLOW STREAM FULL OF STONES 



AND LOGS, 



is thus told by J. H. N. : 



" It sometimes happens that the trapper, in following his 

 line, or in passing from one lake to another, finds himself with 

 his boat in a small stream, with rocks and fallen trees obstruct- 

 ing his way. The Oneida party, in descending from Bass 

 Lake to Salmon Lake, encountered five miles of this kind of 

 navigation. The creek that connects the two lakes was re- 

 duced by drouth to a mere rivulet, with only occasional pud- 

 dles large enough to float the boats ; and though somebody 

 had forced a way through, some years before, by sawing and 

 chopping away logs with incredible heroism and perseverance, 

 much of his labor was lost to us, first, because the low state 

 of the water brought out into bold relief the lower strata of 

 logs, which he had easily sailed over ; and, secondly, because 

 hundreds of new trees had fallen across the creek since his 

 descent. Moreover, the beaver dams had all been repaired, 

 and we had to work our way over twelve of them. We esti- 

 mated by rough guess that the logs we cut through or dragged 

 over numbered about twelve hundred, and the rough rocks 

 (far worse than logs) that we polished with our boat-bottoms 

 were about as many more. In the course of nearly three 

 days' work on these five miles of boating, it may be believed 

 that we learned some practical lessons which it will be useful 

 to record for the benefit of future navigators. We tried two 

 ways of getting along, as people generally do in travelling 



