THE MAINE WOODS. 
We had expected to go upon the lake at once, and 
after paddling up two or three miles, to camp on one of 
its islands; but on account of the steady and increasing 
rain, we decided to go to one of the taverns for the night, 
though, for my own part, I should have preferred to 
camp out. 
About four o’clock the next morning, (July 24th,) 
though it was quite cloudy, accompanied by the landlord 
to the water’s edge, in the twilight, we launched our canoe 
from a rock on the Moosehead Lake. When I was 
there four years before we had a rather small canoe for 
three persons, and I had thought that this time I would 
get a larger one, but the present one was even smaller 
than that. It was 18£ feet long by 2 feet 6J- inches 
wide in the middle, and one foot deep within, as I found 
by measurement, and I judged that it would weigh not 
far from eighty pounds. The Indian had recently made 
it himself, and its smallness was partly compensated for 
by its newness, as well as stanchness and solidity, it 
being made of very thick bark and ribs. Our baggage 
weighed about 166 pounds, so that the canoe carried 
about 600 pounds in all, or the weight of four men. The 
principal part of the baggage was, as usual, placed in the 
middle of the broadest part, while we stowed ourselves 
in the chinks and crannies that were left before and 
behind it, where there was no room to extend our legs, 
the loose articles being tucked into the ends. The canoe 
was thus as closely packed as a market-basket, and might 
possibly have been upset without spilling any of its con¬ 
tents. The Indian sat on a cross-bar in the stern, but we 
flat on the bottom, with a splint or chip behind our backs, 
to protect them from the cross-bar, and one of us commonly 
paddled with the Indian. He foresaw that we should 
