The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-05-15
Primitive Travelling.

Prof John W. Langley, of the chem.
ieal department recently delivered an in.
/ teresting lecture to the students of the
Western University upon the above snb.
/ iect, from which we take the following ex-
/ tract:
'The State of Maine is really settled
only along the coast line. All the north
ern part is covered by an unbroken for
est Of pines and intersected in every di-
reetion by rivers and lakes. In many
districts, over hundreds of square miles,
there will not be a single house, and no
map yet exta7t gives any definite idea
of this region. The water courses are,
however, well known to the lumbermen,
and by their guidance it is not difficult
to enjoy a little taste of savage life in a
genuine wilderness.
The pleasant point from which to leave
civilization for the woods is Moosehead
Lake, an extremely irregular piece of
water about forty miles in length, and
from one TO eight in width. On this
lake is an hotel which may be reached by
wagon and steamer, but once there, moth
ing lies between it and the Canadian set
Elements but forest and mountain.
Prof. Langley sketched off on the
blackboard the extremely tortuous route
the waters of the Upper Penobscot are
obliged to take to reach the sea and the
string of lakes with Indian names, Ches-
uncook, Ripogenus, Pumadumcook,
Great and Little Quakish, and Milli-
nocket, which lie on the route. These
lakes he said are merely expansions of
the river and they are filled with count
less islands, and often so completely sur
rounded by precipitous mountains that
the outlet may be only few yards wide
between high boulders of granite. All
of this part of the State is composed of
granite or some similar rock thinly COW
vered by few inches or feet of earth,
and ali so distorted and Jagged, so pre-
cipitous, torn and uneven that it is a
mystery how the water can find its way
out. The beds of the stream being max
ed rock, and this, too, bristling with
points literally as sharp as a knife, would
in a few hours literally cut to pieces any
ordinary boat, and travelling would be
quite impossible but for the invention of
a boat which is at the same time both
light and flexible.
The canoe answers the description,
and it is truly most wonderful strnc-
ture. Civilization has tried vainly to
improve upon it, but it is like trying to
paint the lily. The lumbermen say that
any change, however slight, from the In
dian model, is detriment rather than
gain. The canoe is so perfectly adapted
to its uses, so complete in every respect,
and so thoroughly fitted to meet all the
exigencies of its life that it may be truly
said to be perfect human invention, and
fully worthy to rank with the steam en-
gine as a triumph of mind over matter.
This admirable adaptation of means
to ends, accomplished by an ignorant
and unintellectual people such as the In
dians are, is we'll worthy of study and
reflection. The steam engine from the
first rude idea developed by Hero, B. c.
100, to this present time, 1874, has been
the work of nearly 1000 years, but it
has been done by "a people possessing the
printing press and numberless other aids
to invention. The canoe on the other
hand is built by ignorant savages, and
yet il is just as perfect as the engine. 1t
too represents a slow progression from
the first man who padded with his
hands while floating on log, up through
the hollow log, the raft, the dug-out, the
catamaran, the various devices of pitch
and hides to the canoe, and it points to
the vast antiquity through which hun
dreds of successive generations of red
men concentrated all their limited brains
on the, to them, infinitely important
problem of navigation.
The canoe is made entirely from veg
etable products, not particle of metal
entering into its construction. 1t has
somewhat the shape of a shoe, but it is
equally pointed and raised at both ends,
so that it will travel indiferently for
wards and backwards. The frame is
made from two elastic poles bent in a
curved form and lashed together at the
ends, but spread apart in: the middle by
three light braces. The ribs are made
from swamp cedar; they are strips about
six feet long, two or three inches wide,
and quarter thick; they are very elast-
ic and are bent into the form of the sec
tion of the vessel. The whole floor and
sides of the canoe are made by placing
siple, and then tying their ends to the
bent frame which forms the gunwale.-
The outline and strength having been
thus secured, it remains only to make it
waterproof This is done by stripping
from the white or paper birch tree sim
gle fold of bark large enough to cover the
outside surface of the ribs. Such piece
maybe twenty or thirty feet long and
six wide.
The bark of the birch is quite differ
ent from that of any ordinary tree; it is
composed of great many layers of "a
material as thin as paper but tightly ee-
mented together and saturated with a
resinous oil which makes it perfectly wa
ter proof. The aggregate thickness of
these layers may be from an eighth to a
quarter of an inch and the side next the
tree is of spongy, woody character
which gives to the whole strength and
elasticity. The strip of bark is folded
round the canoe and secured at the ends
and to the gunwale by sewing with
threads made from the young roots of
the spruce. No holes are ever made be-
low the water line except two partial in
cisions near each end which are neeessa-
ry to fold the bark round the curved
bow and stern. These cuts are pitched
with the resin from pine and spruce
trees.
II * impossibIe To convey by any des-