426                               HISTORY OP MINNESOTA.
forms the ribbing, and the bark the part which comes in contact with the water. These are made of various sizes, from ten to thirty feet in length. The largest are sufficiently strong to carry from two to three tons of lading. They are propelled with the paddle; and when well built and well manned, without lading, will go from eighty to one hundred miles in a day, in calm weather.
" Batteaux are light-made boats, about forty feet in length, and ten or twelve feet wide at the centre, capable of carrying about five tons burden each, and are rowed by six or seven men. They have no deck. Upon articles of lading, with which the boat is filled, is the place for the passengers, who have no other seats than they can form for themselves, out of their travelling trunks, boxes, beds, etc. On these they place themselves in any position which necessity may require, or convenience suggest, with very little regard to gracefulness of position. Such is the vehicle which is to convey us to the place of our destination. In the small compass of this boat we have to find room for eleven persons, including our family and our men, one of whom is an Indian, and four are Frenchmen.
" A person travelling in this region, is obliged to submit to many inconveniences. Here the traveller must take his bed, his house, his provisions, and his utensils to cook them with, along with him, or consent to sleep in the open air on the ground, and to subsist on what the woods and the waters may chance to afford. In short, if he would have anything to make himself comfortable, he must provide himself with it before he leaves home. There are no New England taverns here, at which the traveller can rest when he is weary, and