Note 66 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 3)

Battoes66 are another kind of boats, which are much in use in Albany: they are made of boards of white pine; the bottom is flat, that they may row the better in shallow water; they are sharp at both ends, and somewhat higher towards the end than in the middle. They have seats in them, and are rowed as common boats. They are long, yet not all alike, commonly three, and sometimes four fathoms long. The height from the bottom to the top of the board (for the sides stand almost perpendicular) is from twenty inches to two feet, and the breadth in the middle about a yard and six inches. They are chiefly made use of for carrying goods, by means of the rivers, to the Indians; that is, when those rivers are open enough for the battoes to pass through, and when they need not be carried by land a great way. The boats made of the bark of trees, break easily by knocking against a stone, and the canoes cannot carry a great cargo, and are easily overset; the battoes are therefore preferable to them both. I saw no boats here like those in Sweden, and other parts of Europe.