Loading a Canoe
A top-heavy canoe is decidedly dangerous, that is why it is safest to sit or kneel on the bottom, and in loading your camp stuff bear the fact well in mind. Pack the load as low in the canoe as possible with the heaviest things at the bottom, but use common sense and do not put things that should be kept dry underneath where any water that is shipped will settle and soak them. Think again and put cooking utensils and lunch provender where you can reach them without unloading the canoe. The packing should be done in such a way as to cause the canoe to tip neither at one end or at the other, and certainly not to one side.