TRAVELLING. 31 



heavily loaded. The bruises turn into sores, and useless 

 animals is the result. 



Wagons should be employed on the plains, as the trans- 

 portation they afford will admit of many useful articles 

 being taken along that could not be packed on the backs 

 of mules. 



For coasting, a small cat-boat with cabin, and table 

 leaves (sunken in the sides of the trunk) is convenient in 

 making " short runs," though a sloop-yacht, with jib and 

 top-sail, is better for rough weather and winter work. 

 The former is readily managed, and will run close to the 

 wind, though a rough sea shakes the wind out of her sail, 

 and breaks her headway, when a sloop-yacht would plow 

 through a heavy sea. 



For traversing lakes and ascending rivers, the birch 

 canoe and Bond's patent section boat are the best. There 

 is no easier mode of travel than the well trimmed canoe 

 affords. The "capacity" of a birch canoe is great ; the 

 average sized one carries two men and outfits. A long, 

 well built canoe should be used in open waters. Those 

 made by the Passamaquoddy and Mick Mack Indians are 

 the best, though the Chippewas construct good ones. I 

 have sailed in a stiff breeze with a Passamaquoddy canoe 

 ten miles from land with two men and four large seals. 

 A canoe is only fit to sail before the wind. 



Rafts are easily and quickly made, and often serve the 

 voyager well ; dead cottonwood and white pine logs make 

 the most buoyant ones. A small raft will carry a heavy 

 load, and is rapidly "poled" over shallow water with 

 hard bottom. It can be paddled over large lakes and 

 across tranquil rivers on a still day. Rafts are the most 

 useful in descending rivers, and should be made and 

 trimmed with care when shooting rapids. 



It will often pay the hunter, when there are no paths 

 leading to his hunting-ground, to strike the head of a 

 river where roads abound, and raft his outfit down to a 



