so that all they could do was to prop up the bark they carry in the bottom of their canoes with their oars, and shelter themselves as well as they could to leeward of it.  They, knowing the difficulties that were to be encountered here, had provided themselves with some seal; but we had not the least morsel to eat, after the heavy fatigues of the day, excepting a sort of root we saw some of the Indians make use of, which was very disagreeable to the taste.  We laboured all the next day against the stream, and fared as we had done the day before.  The next day brought us to the carrying-place.  Here was plenty of wood, but nothing to be got for sustenance.

The first thing the Indians did was to take every thing out of their canoes, and after hauling them ashore, they made their wigwams.  We passed this night, as generally we had done, under a tree; but what we suffered at this time is not easily to be expressed.  I had been three days at the oar without any kind of nourishment but the wretched root I mentioned before.  I had no shirt, as mine was rotted off by bits, and we were devoured by vermin.  All my clothes consisted of an old short grieko, which is something like a bearskin with a piece of a waistcoat under it, which once had been of red cloth, both which I had on when I was cast away; I had a ragged pair of trowsers, without either shoe or stocking.

The first thing the Indians did in the morning was to take their canoes to pieces; and here, for the information of the reader, it will be necessary to describe the structure of these boats, which are extremely well calculated for the use of these Indians, as they are frequently obliged to carry them over land a long way together, through thick woods, to avoid doubling capes and head-lands, in seas where no open boats could live.  They generally consist of five pieces or planks, one for the bottom, and two for each side; and as these people have no iron tools, the labour must be great in hacking a single plank out of a large tree with shells and flints, though with the help of fire.  Along the edges of the plank, they make small holes, at about an inch from one to the other, and sew them together with the supplejack or woodbine; but as these holes are not filled up by the substance of the woodbine, their boats would be immediately full of water if they had not a method of preventing it.  They do this very effectually by the bark of a tree, which they first steep in water for some time, and then beat it between two stones till it answers the use of oakum, and then chinse each hole so well, that they do not admit of the least water coming through, and are easily taken asunder and put together again.  When they have occasion to go over land, as at this time, each man or woman carries a plank, whereas it would be impossible for them to drag a heavy boat entire.