der and he turned out what is pretty well known in Brown's Tract
as the "Nessmuk canoe." She weighed just 17 pounds 13 3/4 ounces and
was thought to be the lightest working canoe in existence. Her builder
gave me some advice about stiffening her with braces, etc., if I found
her too frail, "and he never expected another like her."

"He builded better than he knew." She needed no bracing; and she was,
and is, a staunch, seaworthy little model. I fell in love with her from
the start. I had at last found the canoe that I could ride in rough
water, sleep in afloat, and carry with ease for miles. I paddled her
early and late, mainly on the Fulton Chain; but I also cruised her on
Raquette Lake, Eagle, Utowana, Blue Mountain and Forked Lakes, I
paddled her until there were black and blue streaks along the muscles
from wrist to elbow. Thank Heaven, I had found something that made me a
boy again. Her log shows a cruise for 1880 of over 550 miles.

As regards her capacity (she is now on Third Lake, Brown's Tract),
James P. Fifield, a muscular young Forge House guide of 6 feet 2 inches
and 185 pounds weight, took her through the Fulton Chain to Raquette
Lake last summer; and, happening on his camp, Seventh Lake, last July,
I asked him how she performed under his weight. He said, "I never made
the trip to Raquette so lightly and easily in my life." And as to the
opinion of her builder, he wrote me, under date of Nov. 18, '83: "I
thought when I built the Nessmuk, no one else would ever want one. But
I now build about a dozen of them a year. Great big men, ladies, and
two, aye, three schoolboys ride in them. Tis wonderful how few pounds
of cedar, rightly modeled and properly put together, it takes to float
a man," Just so, Mr. Builder. That's what I said when I ordered her.
But few seemed to see it then.

The Nessmuk was by no means the ultimatum of lightness and I ordered
another six inches longer, two inches wider, and to weigh about 15
pounds. When she came to hand she was a beauty, finished in oil and
shellac. But she weighed 16 pounds and would not only carry me and my
duffle, but I could easily carry a passenger of my weight. I cruised
her in the summer of '81 over the Fulton Chain, Raquette Lake, Forked
Lake, down the Raquette River, and on Long Lake. But her log only
showed a record of 206 miles. The cruise that had been mapped for 600
miles was cut short by sickness and I went into quarantine at the
hostelry of Mitchell Sa