orts of people
traveling by the river,--steamboat passengers, campers, fishers,
house-boat folk, and what not,--that we attract little attention of
ourselves, but Pilgrim is indeed a curiosity hereabout. What remarks
we overhear are about her,--"Honey skiff, that!" "Right smart skiff!"
"Good skiff for her place, but no good for this yere river!" and
so on. She is a lap-streak, square-sterned craft, of white cedar
three-eighths of an inch thick; fifteen feet in length and four of
beam; weighs just a hundred pounds; comfortably holds us and our
luggage, with plenty of spare room to move about in; is easily
propelled, and as stanch as can be made. Upon these waters, we meet
nothing like her. Not counting the curious floating boxes and punts,
which are knocked together out of driftwood, by boys and poor whites,
and are numerous all along shore, the regulation Ohio river skiff is
built on graceful lines, but of inch boards, heavily ribbed, and is a
sorry weight to handle. The contention is, that to withstand the swash
of steamboat wakes breaking upon the shore, and the rush of drift in
times of flood, a heavy skiff is necessary; there is a tendency
to decry Pilgrim as a plaything, unadapted to the great river. A
reasonable degree of care at all times, however, and keeping the boat
drawn high on the beach when not in use,--such care as we are familiar
with upon our Wisconsin inland lakes,--would render the employment of
such as she quite practicable, and greatly lessen the labor of rowing
on this waterway.

The houseboats, dozens of which we see daily, interest us greatly.
They are scows, or "flats," greatly differing in size, with
low-ceilinged cabins built upon them--sometimes of one room, sometimes
of half a dozen, and varying in character from a mere shanty to a
well-appointed cottage. Perhaps the greater number of these craft are
afloat in the river, and moored to the bank, with a gang-plank running
to shore; others are "beached," having found a comfortable nook in
some higher stage of water, and been fastened there, propped level
with timbers and driftwood. Among the houseboat folk are young working
couples starting out in life, and hoping ultimately to gain a foothold
on land; unfortunate people, who are making a fresh start; men
regularly employed in riverside factories and mills; invalids, who, at
small expense, are trying the fresh-air cure; others, who drift up and
down the Ohio, seeking casual work; and legitimat