sy as one who has never tried it might
think. A drowning person will for the time being be panic-stricken and
the first impulse will be to seize us about the neck. Always approach
a drowning person from the rear and support him under an armpit,
meanwhile talking to him and trying to reassure him. Every year we
hear of terrible drowning accidents which might have been avoided if
some one in the party had kept his head and had been able to tell the
others what to do.

I have placed canoeing and swimming in the same chapter because the
first word in canoeing is never go until you can swim. There is
practically no difference between the shape of the modern canoe and
the shape of the Indian birch bark canoes which were developed by the
savages in America hundreds of years ago. All the ingenuity of white
men has failed to improve on this model. A canoe is one of the most
graceful of water craft and, while it is regarded more in the light of
a plaything by people in cities, it is just as much a necessity to the
guides and trappers of the great Northern country as a pony is to the
cowboy and the plainsman. The canoe is the horse and wagon of the
Maine woodsman and in it he carries his provisions and his family.

[Illustration: A typical Indian model canoe]

While a canoe is generally propelled by paddles, a pole is sometimes
necessary to force it upstream, especially in swift water. In many
places the sportsman is forced to carry his canoe around waterfalls
and shallows for several miles. For this reason a canoe must be as
light as possible without too great a sacrifice of strength. The old
styles of canoes made of birch bark, hollow logs, the skins of
animals and so on have practically given way to the canvas-covered
cedar or basswood canoes of the Canadian type.

[Illustration: A sailing canoe in action]

It will scarcely pay the boy to attempt to make his own canoe, as the
cost of a well-made eighteen-foot canoe of the type used by
professional hunters and trappers is but thirty dollars. With care a
canoe should last its owner ten years. It will be necessary to protect
it from the weather when not in use and frequently give it a coat of
paint or spar varnish.

Sailing canoes are built after a different model from paddling
canoes. They usually are decked over and simply have a cockpit. They
are also stronger and much heavier. Their use is limited to more open
water than most of the rivers and lakes of Maine and Canada.