upper
hand forward across your face or breast, and with the lower draw the
blade through the water.

It is well to begin as bow paddler, for your duty there, in smooth
water, is to watch for obstructions such as hidden rocks and submerged
logs or snags, while the paddler at the stern must steer the canoe and
keep it in a straight course.

At the beginning learn to paddle as well from one side as from the
other. To be able to change sides is very restful and sometimes a quick
change will prevent an accident. Like many other things, the knack of
paddling will come with experience and will then require no more thought
than keeping your balance on a bicycle and steering it.

=Loading a Canoe=

A top-heavy canoe is decidedly dangerous, that is why it is safest to
sit or kneel on the bottom, and in loading your camp stuff bear the fact
well in mind. Pack the load as low in the canoe as possible with the
heaviest things at the bottom, but use common sense and do not put
things that should be kept dry underneath where any water that is
shipped will settle and soak them. Think again and put cooking utensils
and lunch provender where you can reach them without unloading the
canoe. The packing should be done in such a way as to cause the canoe
to tip neither at one end or at the other, and certainly not to one
side.

[Illustration: 34 36

35 How to use the paddle and a flat-bottomed rowboat.]

=Rowing=

A rowboat is a safer craft than a canoe, and rowing is not a difficult
feat, but there is a difference between the rowing of a heavy
flat-bottomed boat and rowing a light skiff or round-bottomed rowboat.
In rowing properly one's body does most of the work and the strain comes
more on the muscles of the back than on those of the arms.

In paddling you face the bow of the canoe; in rowing you are turned
around and face the stern of your boat. In paddling you reach forward
and draw your paddle back; in rowing you lean back and pull your oars
forward. When beginning a stroke grasp the handles of your oars firmly
near the ends, lean forward with arms outstretched and elbows straight,
the oars slanting backward, and, by bearing down on the handles of the
oars, lift the blades above the water. Then drop them in edgewise and
pull, straightening your body, bending your elbows, and bringing your
hands together one above the other. As you finish the stroke bear down
on your oars to lift the blades out of the water again, turn