In Christopherson's service, sail was rarely used, as the canoemen were unskilled in handling it and loss had resulted. In early times, however, it appears to have been much used on the Great Lakes routes by the French and the North West Company. A single square-sail was the only rig employed; the canoes could not be worked to windward under fore-and-aft sails. During the great seasonal movements the trade canoes moved in fleets called brigades, the usual brigade in early times being three or four canoes, but later, when the needs of the individual posts had grown, the brigade could be of any necessary number of canoes to carry in the required supplies and goods or to bring out the season's catch of furs. The leader of the brigade was the _conducteur_ or _guide_; sometimes he was the post's factor. In French times the _maître canot_ would be loaded with 60 pieces, or packs, to the total of about 3 short tons and half a ton of provisions, and eight men, each with an allowance of 40 pounds for gear, so that the whole weight in the canoe would be something over 4 short tons. An example of such a canoe measured, inside the gunwales, 5½ fathoms long and 4½ feet beam. The usual brigade of four of these canoes would thus carry roughly 12 short tons of goods. The Company would send one brigade after another, at close intervals of time, until the whole seasonal movement was in progress. Those brigades going the greatest distance were started first. Although cargoes left the coast from early spring on to late summer, the great canoe movement took place towards the fall. Canoe travel north and northwestward from the Great Lakes had to be carefully timed, as goods had to be accumulated at the base posts on the Lakes and the brigades placed in movement at the last safe date which would permit them to reach their destination before the first hard freeze-up. The base posts were those where the run of the _maître canot_ ended and that of the _canot du nord_ began, the places where reloading for the individual trading posts in the Northland was necessary. The late start was usually desirable in order to await the arrival at the base posts of all the goods required, for movements of freight were uncertain before the days of railroads and steamers. [Illustration: Figure 143 DECORATIONS: FUR-TRADE CANOES. (_Watercolor sketch by Adney._)]