tree, which was sent along with the savages, to show me what they made use of in place of our large ships, to traverse the sea and the lakes. It is a kind of little boat, very narrow and sharp at both ends, the better to cut the water indifferently with each; and the greater part of them are sufficient to contain only one person. On shewing her this, which was rather more than two feet long, I ask'd her whether she knew it: Oh yes, said she, I remember it pretty well; but I think they were not altogether like this; they were almost entirely covered over, and, I believe, they had only a hole in the middle, which reached to about the waist of those who sat in them, and they went thus, (making the motion of rowing on both sides at once) either backwards or forwards, at their pleasure. This description of the canoe agreeing exactly with that given me by Madame Duplessis of the Esquimaux canoe, of which Madamoiselle le Blanc was certainly ignorant, I had no further doubt of her being of that nation, and that the description of the covered canoe of the Esquimaux arose from her remembrance of the original. Whoever reads the extracts from the account transmitted me along with my figures, cannot fail to be of my opinion.
No. VI
