overboard, after making
fast, and pay out as much line as they can muster. By making a canvas
half-deck to an open boat, you much increase its safety in broken water;
and if it be made to lace down the centre, it can be rolled up on the
gunwale, and be out of the way in fine weather.

In Floating down a Stream when the wind blows right against you (and on
rivers the wind nearly always blows right up or right down), a plan
generally employed is to cut large branches, to make them fast to the
front of the boat, weight them that they may sink low in the water, and
throw them overboard. The force of the stream acting on these branches
will more than counterbalance that of the wind upon the boat. For want of
branches, a kind of water-sail is sometimes made of canvas.

Steering in the Dark.--In dark nights, when on a river running through
pine forests, the mid stream canbe kept by occasionally striking the
water sharply with the blade of the oar, and listening to the echoes.
They should reach the ear simultaneously, or nearly so, from either bank.
On the same principle, vessels have been steered out of danger when
caught by a dense fog close to a rocky coast.

Awning.--The best is a wagon-roof awning, made simply of a couple of
parallel poles, into which the ends of the bent ribs of the roof are set,
without any other cross-pieces. This roof should be of two feet larger
span than the width of the boat, and should rest upon prolongations of
the thwarts, or else upon crooked knees of wood. One arm of each of the
knees is upright, and is made fast to the inside of the boat, while the
other is horizontal and projects outside it: it is on these horizontal
and projecting arms that the roof rests, and to which it is lashed. Such
an awning is airy, roomy, and does not interfere with rowing if the
rowlocks are fixed to the poles. It also makes an excellent cabin for
sleeping in at night.

Sail Tent.--A boat's sail is turned into a tent by erecting a
gable-shaped framework: the mast or other spar being the ridge-pole, and
a pair of crossed oars lashed together supporting it at either end; and
the whole is made stable by a couple of ropes and pegs. Then the sail is
thrown across the ridge-pole (not over the crossed loops of the oars, for
they would fret it), and is pegged out below. The natural fall of the
canvas bends to close the two ends, as with curtains.

[Sketch of tent].

Tree-snakes.--Where these abound, travellers on rive