A snowshoe is made of two light bars of wood fastened together at their
extremities and projected into curves by transverse bars.
The side bars
have been so shaped by a frame and dried before a fire that the front
part of the shoe turns up like the prow of a boat and the part behind
terminates in an acute angle; the spaces between the bars are filled up
with a fine netting of leathern thongs except that part behind the main
bar which is occupied by the feet; the netting is there close and strong,
and the foot is attached to the main bar by straps passing round the heel
but only fixing the toes so that the heel rises after each step, and the
tail of the shoe is dragged on the snow. Between the main bar and another
in front of it a small space is left, permitting the toes to descend a
little in the act of raising the heel to make the step forward, which
prevents their extremities from chafing. The length of a snowshoe is from
four to six feet and the breadth one foot and a half, or one and
three-quarters, being adapted to the size of the wearer. The motion of
walking in them is perfectly natural for one shoe is level with the snow
when the edge of the other is passing over it. It is not easy to use them
among bushes without frequent overthrows, nor to rise afterwards without
help. Each shoe weighs about two pounds when unclogged with snow. The
northern Indian snowshoes differ a little from those of the southern
Indians, having a greater curvature on the outside of each shoe, one
advantage of which is that when the foot rises the over-balanced side
descends and throws off the snow. All the superiority of European art has
been unable to improve the native contrivance of this useful machine.
Sledges are made of two or three flat boards curving upwards in front and
fastened together by transverse pieces of wood above. They are so thin
that, if heavily laden, they bend with the inequalities of the surface
over which they pass. The ordinary dog-sledges are eight or ten feet long
and very narrow, but the lading is secured to a lacing round the edges.
The cariole used by the traders is merely a covering of leather for the
lower part of the body, affixed to the common sledge which is painted and
ornamented according to the taste of the proprietor. Besides snowshoes
each individual carries his blanket, hatchet, steel, flint, and tinder,
and generally firearms.
...
The general dress of the winter traveller is a capot, having a hood to
put up under the fur cap in windy weather or in the woods to keep the
snow from his neck, leathern trousers and Indian stockings which are
closed at the ankles round the upper part of his moccasins or Indian
shoes to prevent the snow from getting into them.
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