Note 44 — Chapter II · GLENLAIR—CHILDHOOD—1831 TO 1841.

To enable him to “trim the vessel,” he had put a block of wood in the centre. Sitting on this, and tucking his legs on either side, he could paddle about steadily and securely. Mrs. Blackburn tells me that years afterwards at Ruthven, in Forfarshire, being desirous of inspecting a water-hen’s nest on a deep pond, where there was no boat, she adopted the same method, and made the voyage both ways alone without the slightest uneasiness.