Appendix B 371 



his northern contemporary. At the many carries or 

 portages the light birch-bark canoe or its modern repre- 

 sentative, the canvas-covered canoe, can be picked up 

 bodily and carried by from two to four men for several 

 miles, if necessary, while the log canoe has to be hauled 

 by ropes and back-breaking labor over rollers that have 

 first to be cut from trees in the forest, or at great risk 

 led along the edge of the rapids with ropes and hooks 

 and poles, the men often up to their shoulders in the 

 rushing waters, guiding the craft to a place of safety. 



The native canoe is so long and heavy that it is diffi- 

 cult to navigate without some bumps on the rocks. In 

 fact, it is usually dragged over the rocks in the shallow 

 water near shore in preferance to taking the risk of a 

 plunge through the rushing volume of deeper water, for 

 reasons stated above. The North American canoe can 

 be turned with greater facility in critical moments in 

 bad water. Many a time I heard my steersman exclaim 

 with delight as we took a difficult passage between two 

 rocks with our loaded Canadian canoe. In making the 

 same passage the dugout would go sideways toward the 

 rapid until by a supreme effort her three powerful pad- 

 dlers and steersman would right her just in time. The 

 native canoe would ship great quantities of water in 

 places the Canadian canoe came through without taking 

 any water on board. We did bump a few rocks under 

 water, but the canoe was so elastic that no damage was 

 done. 



Our nineteen-foot canvas-covered freight canoe, a 

 type especially built for the purpose on deep, full lines 

 with high free-board, weighed about one hundred and 



