But American resourcefulness before long went even further.

As the forests receded from the banks of the streams before the woodman's axe, the shipwrights followed.

In the depths of the woods, miles perhaps from water, snows, pinnaces, ketches, and sloops were built.

When the heavy snows of winter had fallen, and the roads were hard and smooth, runners were laid under the little ships, great teams of oxen--sometimes more than one hundred yoke--were attached, and the craft dragged down to the river, to lie there on the ice until the spring thaw came to gently let it down into its proper element.

Many a farmer, too, whose lands sloped down to a small harbor, or stream, set up by the water side the frame of a vessel, and worked patiently at it during the winter days when the flinty soil repelled the plough and farm work was stopped.