r craft in
the birch-bark canoe and with it will run rapids that a South American
Indian with his log canoe would not think of attempting, though, as a
general thing, the South American Indian is a wonderful waterman, the
equal and, in some ways, the superior of his northern contemporary. At
the many carries or portages the light birch-bark canoe or its modern
representative, the canvas-covered canoe, can be picked up bodily and
carried by from two to four men for several miles, if necessary, while
the log canoe has to be hauled by ropes and back-breaking labor over
rollers that have first to be cut from trees in the forest, or at
great risk led along the edge of the rapids with ropes and hooks and
poles, the men often up to their shoulders in the rushing waters,
guiding the craft to a place of safety.

The native canoe is so long and heavy that it is difficult to navigate
without some bumps on the rocks. In fact, it is usually dragged over
the rocks in the shallow water near shore in preference to taking the
risk of a plunge through the rushing volume of deeper water, for
reasons stated above. The North American canoe can be turned with
greater facility in critical moments in bad water. Many a time I heard
my steersman exclaim with delight as we took a difficult passage
between two rocks with our loaded Canadian canoe. In making the same
passage the dugout would go sideways toward the rapid until by a
supreme effort her three powerful paddlers and steersman would right
her just in time. The native canoe would ship great quantities of
water in places the Canadian canoe came through without taking any
water on board. We did bump a few rocks under water, but the canoe was
so elastic that no damage was done.

Our nineteen-foot canvas-covered freight canoe, a type especially
built for the purpose on deep, full lines with high free-board,
weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds and would carry a ton of
cargo with ease--and also take it safely where the same cargo
distributed among two or three native thirty or thirty-five foot
canoes would be lost. The native canoes weigh from about nine hundred
to two thousand five hundred pounds and more.

In view of the above facts the explorer-traveller is advised to take
with him the North American canoe if he intends serious work. Two
canoes would be a good arrangement for from five to seven men, with
at least one steersman and two paddlers to each canoe. The canoes can
be purch