The Scientific American Boy; Or, The Camp at Willow Clump Island

oke to find the ground covered to a depth of eight inches and snow still falling. But who ever heard of a boy complaining because there was snow on the ground? Here were new di

s for the day. There seemed to be but one way of reaching the island, and that wa

eat Sno

Chair Sea

a fairly large bearing surface. The chair seats were trimmed off at each side to make the shoes less clumsy, and a loop of leather was fastened near the

Stave S

arrel Stav

that two staves fastened together with a pair of wooden cleats were much better. Jack was the proud inventor of

Hoop Sn

arrel Hoop

waddling back to the shed on a pair of barrel hoops covered with heavy canvas. He had stretched the canvas so tightly across the hoops that they were bent to an oval shape

which several different kinds of snow shoes were illustrated. Reddy, whose father owned a

oux Sn

5. Sio

ickory 4 feet long and 3/4 inch square in section, were bent over

ctory way of fastening together the ends of the hickory strips was to bolt them together. When the frame was completed, we began the tedious process of weaving in the filling or web of the snow shoe. First we cut notches in the edges of the spreaders, spacing these notches an inch apart. Then we pr

ut an inch, and then carried down to the second notch on the lower spreader, whence it was woven through the other two strands and tied about the left side stick about four inches from the spreader. Thus the weaving continued, passing the cord alternately over and under any cross strands encountered. In order to make the l

piece of wire. The latter was bent double to receive the c

oquois

he frame of this shoe was made of hickory strips of the

ily bent without breaking if boiled or steamed for a while; but we had nothing large enough in which to boil a strip of wood 8 feet long. Bill hit upon the plan of wrapping the stick with burlap and then pouring boili

ith boiling water, and from this we dipped out the water and poured it slowly over the burlap wrapping of the stick. A

ay to dry. When the frame was perfectly dry we started weaving the web. In this case, however, instead of cord we used cane strips, which we had bought from a chair caner. This necessitated drilling holes in the side sticks

nu Sno

rance. According to the description, it was a type used by the Ainus, a peculiar people living in t

lashed together, forming an oval about 2 feet 6 inches long by 18 inches wide. The frame was held to oval shape

f our snowshoes. We were rather awkward with those shoes for a while, trying to keep them clear of each other, and we found it particularly hard to turn sharply without causing one s

were prepared for the expedition to

n to be described, namely the Swiss snow shoe and the Norwegian ski. The Sw

rwegia

ong. About 18 inches from the forward end the wood was planed down to a thickness of 1/4 of an

. enough to permit of

oint, and also another strap, to be secured about the ankle. Then a cleat was nailed onto the ski to fit against the heel of the shoe. In use we found it best to cut a groove in the bottom of the ski, so as to give us a better grip on the snow in climbing up

now Shoe or

The Swiss

old baskets, and they worked so admirably that it was decided to equip the whole society with them. Uncle Ed, when told about them, informed us that that was the kind of snow shoe us