your wrists
to bring the flat of the blades almost parallel with the water but with
the back edge lifted a little; then bend forward and, sweeping the oars
backward, turning the edge down, plunge them in the water for another
pull. Turning the wrists at the beginning of a stroke feathers the oar,
the forward edge of which is sometimes allowed to skim lightly over the
surface of the water as the oar is carried backward. In steering with
the oars you pull hardest on the oar on the side _opposite_ to the
direction you wish to take. A little practise and all this comes easy
enough.

The thing for a beginner to avoid is "catching a crab." That is,
dipping the oars so lightly in the water as not to give sufficient hold,
which will cause them, when pulled forward, to fly up and send the rower
sprawling on her back. In dipping too deeply there is danger of losing
an oar by the suction of the water. Experience will teach the proper
depth for the stroke.

On some of the Adirondack lakes the round-bottomed rowboats are used
almost exclusively, but the boat with a narrow, flat bottom is safer and
is both light and easy to row. A cedar rowboat is the most desirable.
The oars should be light for ordinary rowing yet strong enough to
prevent their snapping above the blade in rough water.

=Rafts=

You can never tell just what will happen when you go on the long trail,
that is one of its charms, nor do you know what you will be called upon
to do. The girl best versed in the ways of the water as well as of the
woods is surest of safety, and can be most helpful to her party.
Possibly you may never be called upon to build a raft, and again an
emergency may arise when a raft will not only be convenient but
absolutely necessary. When such an emergency does come it is not likely
that you will have anything besides the roughest of building material
and no tools besides your small axe or hatchet. But with your axe you
can chop off limbs of sufficient size for the raft from fallen trees,
and with ropes made of the inner bark of trees you can bind your small
logs together in such a way as to hold them firmly. Do not use green
wood, it will not float like the dry. Logs about twelve inches in
diameter are the best, but half that size will make a good raft. Six
feet by twelve is a fair size. The smaller the logs the larger the raft
must be in order to carry any weight, for it must cover a wider surface
of water than is necessary for one made