satisfactory than the elaborate ones which were later devised.

[Illustration: Fig. 23. Barrel Stave Snow Shoe.]



Barrel Hoop Snow Shoe.

[Illustration: Fig. 24. Barrel Hoop Snow Shoe.]

Now that Jack had shown his ingenuity, Fred thought it was his turn to do
something, and after mysteriously disappearing for the space of an hour we
saw him suddenly come 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. It was claimed for these
shoes, and with good reason, that they were not so slippery as the barrel
stave shoe, for they permitted the foot to sink slightly into the snow.

After dinner, Dutchy came back with a book of his father's, a sort of an
encyclopedia in which several different kinds of snow shoes were
illustrated. Reddy, whose father owned a sawmill, volunteered to provide
us with strips of hickory from which to make the frames.



The Sioux Snow Shoe.

[Illustration: Fig.25. Sioux Shoe.]

[Illustration: Fig. 26. Frame of the Sioux Shoe.]