BOSTON SOCIETY
OF NATURAL HISTORY, AND OF THE NEW
YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.

BOSTON:
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.
NEW YORK: CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM.
EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS.
1882.

COPYRIGHT
1878,
BY N. H. BISHOP.

UNIVERSITY PRESS: JOHN WILSON & SON
CAMBRIDGE.

TO THE
SUPERINTENDENT, ASSISTANTS, AIDS, AND ALL
EMPLOYES OF THE
UNITED STATES COAST SURVEY BUREAU,
THE
"VOYAGE OF THE PAPER CANOE"
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,
AS A SLIGHT EVIDENCE OF THE APPRECIATION BY ITS AUTHOR FOR
THEIR INTELLIGENT EFFORTS AND SELF-DENYING LABORS
IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY, SO PATIENTLY
AND SKILFULLY PERFORMED, UNDER MANY
DIFFICULTIES AND DANGERS.

INTRODUCTION.

The author left Quebec, Dominion of Canada, July 4, 1874, with a
single assistant, in a wooden canoe eighteen feet in length, bound for
the Gulf of Mexico. It was his intention to follow the natural and
artificial connecting watercourses of the continent in the most direct
line southward to the gulf coast of Florida, making portages as seldom
as possible, to show how few were the interruptions to a continuous
water-way for vessels of light draught, from the chilly, foggy, and
rocky regions of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the north, to the
semi-tropical waters of the great Southern Sea, the waves of which
beat upon the sandy shores of the southernmost United States. Having
proceeded about four hundred miles upon his voyage, the author reached
Troy, on the Hudson River, New York state, where for several years
E. Waters & Sons had been perfecting the construction of paper boats.

The advantages in using a boat of only fifty-eight pounds weight, the
strength and durability of which had been well and satisfactorily
tested, could not be questioned, and the author dismissed his
assistant, and "paddled his own canoe" about two thousand miles to
the end of the journey. Though frequently lost in the labyrinth of
creeks and marshes which skirt the southern coast of his country,
the author's difficulties were greatly lessened by the use of the
valuable and elaborate charts of the United States Coast Survey
Bureau, to the faithful executers of which he desires to give
unqualified and grateful praise.

To an unknown wanderer among the creeks, rivers, and sounds of the
coast, the