very near to us and seemed to be at play. One
of our men advanced toward it very cautiously,
and with an oar, gave it a blow upon the tail,
which so disabled it that he caught it. We
found it to be a muscanonje, measuring four feet
two inches in length and proportionally thick.
The muscanonje is from head to tail very beau-
tifully spotted, and is I think not inferior to any
fish I ever tasted.

For several days past we have been not a little
mortified at being confined to a harbor, whilst
the Indians are passing us very frequently in
their bark canoes. It is astonishing to see these
canoes riding large swells without danger. It is
certain that they will ride waves whose height
exceeds their length.

Many of the bark canoes of the Indians have
fallen under our observation. They are gene-
rally made of the bark of the birch tree, and
shaped differently. We have seen bark canoes
loaded with two thousand five hundred weight,
which were so light that two men could carry
them on their shoulders with great ease. The
construction of the smaller description of these
boats is so simple, that in an hour they will
have a canoe made which will carry several per-
sons across their rivers. We have also seen many
of their rafts. These are made for crossing
rivers at those seasons of the year when it is not
easy to strip the bark from the trees. In all the
river bottoms the buckeye wood is to be found.