Slab Canoe
which consists simply of one of those long slabs, the first cut from some giant log ([Fig. 43]).
These slabs are burned or thrown away by the mill-owners, and hence cost nothing; and as the saw-mill is in advance of population, you are most likely to run across one on a hunting or fishing trip.
Near one end, and on the flat side of the slab ([Fig. 40]), bore four holes, into which drive the four legs of a stool made of a section of a smaller slab ([Fig. 41]), and your boat is ready to launch. From a piece of board make a double or single paddle ([Fig. 42]), and you are equipped for a voyage. An old gentleman, who in his boyhood days on the frontier frequently used this simple style of canoe, says that the speed it makes will compare favorably with that of many a more pretentious vessel. See [Fig. 43] for furnished boat.