Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/138

fitting joints, and the cracks daubed with thick paint, it is often unnecessary to do any further caulking. A good method is to saturate pieces of woollen cloth with paint and place them between the different parts before they are joined. After the carpenter work is done, go to the paint shop and get a can of white paint, first telling the painter to weigh the can. After you have used what paint is necessary, return the can, have it weighed, and pay only for the amount used. If you are well known the painter will not hesitate to allow you to do this, and you will find it the most economical way. After the first coat of paint is dry put on a second coat; as soon as that is hardened, which will be in two or three days, according to the weather, your boat is ready for launching; it may leak at first, but after the seams have swelled it will be almost perfectly dry inside.

Flat-boats are essentially inland craft, having their origin with the birth of trade in the West before the puffing and panting steam-boats plowed their way through the turbid waters of Western rivers. They are craft that can be used on any stream large enough to float a yawl, but the St. John's River, Florida, is perhaps the most tempting stream for the amateur flat-boatman. The numerous inlets and lakes connected with the river, the luxuriant semi-tropical foliage on the banks, the strange-looking fish and great, stupid alligators, the beautiful white herons and hundreds of water-fowl of many descriptions—all form features that add interest to its navigation and inducements to hunters, fishermen, naturalists, and pleasure-seekers scarcely equalled by any other accessible river of the United States.

To build the hull of the flat-boat, use pine lumber. For the sides select two good, straight 2-inch planks, 14 feet long