262 



Portable Boats. 



through the forest, over carries or portages sometimes two 

 or three miles in length. 



During the last ten years, I have had frequent occasions 

 to use these boats in all their different forms. I have 

 always entertained for them the greatest admiration, but 

 have never liked to back one over a three-mile carry. 

 Often my pity has been aroused at the sight of my guide, 

 struggling through the forest and over the hills under his 

 bulky burden, and often have I been annoyed in the course 

 of wilderness exploration by the sudden discovery of a 

 lake where none was supposed to exist, by finding myself 

 without a boat in which to explore it ; and oh ! the slow 

 and solemn times that I have experienced while endeavoring 

 to pole along a raft ! 



After much reflection, I came to the conclusion that the 

 first essential of a boat was its outside — the very cuticle, 

 if firm enough, being sufficient. Further study and tests 

 led me to select canvas as the best substance for the ex- 

 terior, and that was many years before I placed this boat 

 upon the Adirondack waters. 



Now, portable boats of rubber were in use long ago, and 

 canvas has also been employed in boat construction. 

 Colonel, now General John C. Fremont, carried with him 

 a rubber boat, and with it explored a portion of the Great 

 Salt lake, perhaps the first navigation of that water by a 

 white man. His boat, however, had a frame which it was 

 necessary to carry with it, and withal leaked badly ; it was 

 used, I think, but once afterwards, wheu it was wrecked 

 in navigating a rapid river. Dr. Kane, in his Arctic ex- 

 plorations, carried with him, also, a portable rubber boat, 

 of the fate of which we only know that it was cut to pieces 

 by a thievish Esquimau, who wanted the wooden frame 

 within. This boat required its frame to be carried with it. 

 In the army, canvas pontoons have been used, but these 

 also require very heavy and substantial frames to be carried 

 along, and old soldiers may remember how many men were 



