All these articles are constructed especially for this purpose.

All the wood-work should be of tough and well-seasoned timber, so as to impose no unnecessary weight on the wagon trains.

The bateaux should also be made of strong and light materials.
For convenience in transportation, these boats are sometimes made with hinges so as to fold up.

The ribs are usually of oak, and the sides and bottom of pine.

Instead of plank, a covering of tin, copper, India-rubber, &c., has sometimes been substituted.