room for working a chisel-shaped wooden wedge--about two feet
long--with which the bark is taken off. Where knots appear great care
is exercised that the bark be not torn. To make it easier to pack, the
sheet of bark is then rolled up the narrow way, and tied with willow.
In this shape, it is transported to the summer camping grounds. Canoes
range in size all the way from twelve feet to thirty-six feet in
length. The smaller size, being more easily portaged, is used by
hunters, and is known as a two-fathom canoe. For family use canoes are
usually from two and a half to three and a half fathoms long. Canoes
of the largest size, thirty-six feet, are called six-fathom or "North"
canoes. With a crew of from eight to twelve, they have a carrying
capacity of from three to four tons, and are used by the traders for
transporting furs and supplies.

Some Indians engage in "voyaging" or "tripping" for the traders--taking
out fur packs to the steamboats or railroads, by six-fathom canoe, York
boat, or sturgeon-head scow brigades, and bringing in supplies. Others
put in part of their time on an occasional hunt for moose or caribou,
or in shooting wild fowl. On their return they potter around camp
making paddles or snowshoe frames; or they give themselves up to
gambling--a vice to which they are rather prone. Sometimes twenty men
or more, divided into equal sides, will sit in the form of an oval,
with their hair drawn over their faces that their expression may not
easily be read, and with their knees covered with blankets. Leaders
are chosen on either side, and each team is supplied with twelve small
sticks. The game begins by one of the leaders placing his closed hands
upon his blanket, and calling upon the other to match him. If the
latter is holding his stick in the wrong hand, he loses; and so the
game goes on. Two sets of drummers are playing continuously and all
the while there is much chanting. In this simple wise they gamble away