ain fell in the afternoon. The
boat having now become sufficiently dry, we gave it a coat of the
composition, which after a proper interval was repeated, and the next
morning,

Tuesday 9, she was launched into the water, and swam perfectly well: the
seats were then fixed and the oars fitted; but after we had loaded her,
as well as the canoes, and were on the point of setting out a violent
wind caused the waves to wet the baggage, so that we were forced to
unload them. The wind continued high till evening, when to our great
disappointment we discovered that nearly all the composition had
separated from the skins, and left the seams perfectly exposed; so that
the boat now leaked very much. To repair this misfortune without pitch
is impossible, and as none of that article is to be procured, we
therefore, however reluctantly, are obliged to abandon her, after having
had so much labour in the construction. We now saw that the section of
the boat covered with buffaloe skins on which hair had been left,
answered better than the elk skins and leaked but little; while that
part which was covered hair about one eighth of an inch, retained the
composition perfectly, and remained sound and dry. From this we
perceived that had we employed buffaloe instead of elk skins, and not
singed them so closely as we have done, carefully avoiding to cut the
leather in sewing, the boat would have been sufficient even with the
present composition, or had we singed instead of shaving the elk skins
we might have succeeded. But we discovered our error too late: the
buffaloe had deserted us, the travelling season was so fast advancing
that we had no time to spare for experiments, and therefore finding that
she could be no longer useful she was sunk in the water, so as to soften
the skins and enable us the more easily to take her to pieces. It now
became necessary to provide other means for transporting the baggage
which we had intended to stow in her. For this purpose we shall want two
canoes, but for many miles below the mouth of the Muscleshell river to
this place, we have not seen a single tree fit to be used in that way.
The hunters however who had hitherto been sent after timber, mention
that there is a low ground on the opposite side of the river, about
eight miles above us by land, and more than twice that distance by
water, in which we may probably find trees large enough for our
purposes. Captain Clarke therefore determined to set out by lan