Building the Raft
If we had to build another raft, there is little we would change except the size. Ours, measuring some 650 square feet, weighed several tons, and proved hard to handle in rapids and shallows.
The bark should be removed as saan as the tree is felled and before the sap dries. Before yau put the lags together, it is best to wait farty-eight haurs, so their surface will be dry.
In the Yukon Flats, a shallow section of the river with many islands, blind sloughs, and sandbanks, the men on watch always try’ to keep the raft in the center of the main current.
This was an easy passage, different in every way from the one that lay ahead.
I have crossed Labrador, Alaska, and Siberia with Andre Michaldak, alias Totoche.”
