yacht, a schooner, a man-of-war--all these
varieties are somewhat commonplace. The construction of them requires
skill and dexterity, I know, but you do not want a description from me
of these, and I wish to tell you of something more uncommon than the
boats we see on our own waters.

Perhaps some of my readers have not attempted anything on so large a
scale as this I am about to describe. If they are afraid of the size of
the venture, they can follow the general directions, and make their
dimensions smaller.

Two boats we want, and four paddles.

The boats are to be in shape and form like the Indian birch-bark canoe:
this, as you know, has a very distinctive appearance of its own, and is
quite different from any boat we see on English waters: for this reason,
although you might be able to find a picture of one in some book, a
drawing is given for you to study, as your model for shape and form. As
I have said, we require two of these canoes, and they are to be of
different sizes. The length of the big one is 12 inches; the depth of
this boat in the middle is 2 inches; at its stern and prow, which you
will see are alike also in form, the measurement is 2-1/2 inches.

The length of the little canoe is 9-1/2 inches: in the middle it is 1-1/2
inches, and prow and stern measure 2 inches.

The particularly bulging sides of boats of this character are the cause
of the chief difficulty of their construction; fortunately for our
purpose only one side of the canoes have this protuberance, for this
reason--these canoes and paddles are placed together and hung up against
a wall, and therefore one side of each canoe has to be flat in order to
rest steadily and comfortably against the wall. The interiors of the
canoes are scooped out, and serve as receptacles for odds and ends.

The paddles of some canoes are short and have wide spoon-like blades at
each end; these, you see, have not. The length of the pair of big
paddles is 13 inches; of these inches the blade takes 2-1/2 inches. The
extreme length of the little paddles is 12 inches; their blades are as
large as those of their companions.

These four paddles are crossed over each other, and over one another,
all at the same time standing in an upright position.

The two long paddles cross each other just below the blades, which rear
themselves aloft; the two short paddles also cross each other near their
blades, but they are head downwards. When these four brothers are place