standing, as they would
be cumbrous to carry in his small canoe, and thousands may be had at
every place where he may wish to land.

The Indian canoe is an exceedingly light and graceful little craft, and
well adapted for travelling in through a wild country, where the rivers
are obstructed by long rapids, waterfalls, and shallows. It is so light
that one man can easily carry it on his shoulders over the land, when a
waterfall obstructs his progress; and as it only sinks about four or six
inches in the water, few places are too shallow to float it. The birch
bark of which it is made is about a quarter of an inch thick; and the
inside is lined with extremely thin flakes of wood, over which a number
of light timbers are driven, to give strength and tightness to the
machine. In this frail bark, which measures from twelve, fifteen,
thirty, to forty feet long, and from two to four feet broad in the
middle, a whole Indian family of eight or ten souls will travel hundreds
of miles, over rivers and lakes innumerable; now floating swiftly down a
foaming rapid, and anon gliding over the surface of a quiet lake, or
_making a portage_ overland when a rapid is too dangerous to descend;
and, while the elders of the family assist in carrying the canoe, the
youngsters run about plucking berries, and the shaggy little curs (one
or two of which are possessed by every Indian family) search for food,
or bask in the sun at the foot of the baby's cradle, which stands bolt
upright against a tree, while the child gazes upon all these operations
with serene indifference.

Not less elegant and useful than the canoe is the snowshoe, without
which the Indian would be badly off indeed. It is not, as many suppose,
used as a kind of _skate_, with which to _slide_ over the snow, but as a
machine to prevent, by its size and breadth, the wearer from sinking
into the snow; which is so deep that, without the assistance of the
snowshoe, no one could walk a quarter of a mile through the woods in
winter without being utterly exhausted.

It is formed of two thin pieces of light wood, tied at both ends, and
spread out near the middle, thus making a kind of long oval, the
interior of which is filled up with network of deer-skin threads.
Strength is given to the frame by placing wooden bars across; and it is
fastened _loosely_ to the foot by a slight line going over the toe. In
case, however, it may be supposed that by a shoe I mean an article
something