The Ermatinger family was involved in the fur trade from the mid 18th century well into the 19th century, from the Great lakes to the western Rockies.
In 1769, Lawrence Ermatinger outfitted his first two canoes for goods bound for the Great Lakes region. Six years later, he was able to outfit six canoes.
These six canoes, crewed by 38 men, carried the following goods to the Lakes from Montreal (from Trappers of the West):

600 gallons of rum and wine
2000 pounds of gunpowder
3600 pounds of [lead] ball and shot
80 rifles [in 1774, (I question if these were truly rifles, or if the editor made that assumption from "guns" or "fowling pieces". Natives almost always requested smooth bored fowling pieces as trade guns, NOT rifles.)
85 bales of dry goods (around 90 pounds per bale)
5500 pounds of tobacco
15 cases of ironwork
10 cases of brass kettles

The canoes used in the Great Lakes were huge by modern standards, and portages took a long time, unloading and reloading all of those goods, multiple times a day.

Voyageurs Passing a Waterfall by Frances Ann Hopkins:

It amazes me how resourceful and hardy our ancestors were.

Thanks for the lesson!

I've read that too about the Indians getting or preferring smoothbores. You reckon it was because they weren't as good of shots as the mountaineers?

I think there were several reasons.

Ease of loading and cleaning
Lighter weight, the Indians places a huge emphasis on this
Smooth bored fowlers weren't as picky about round ball sizes as rifles were
Could be used as shotguns, or buck and ball loads
And the Indians demanded serpent sideplates, only found on trade guns

American trappers rarely used fowling pieces. About the only time they did was when they would "run" buffalo on horseback. And this was because the fowlers are easier to load.

I imagine they were cheaper than a Hawkins or other quality rifle too.

I don't have any of those lists handy, but they were around 1/3 to 1/4 the price of a rifle.

that would make 4 Six man boats and 2 seven man boats.

from civil war records an average healthy fighting age man was 163 pounds much like an army chopper pilot I talked to he just estimated guys at 200 pounds a peice cause gear , I thought that seemed a little light but for lean soldiers I guess it isn't too far off.

so if a man and his personal gear came in at 200 pounds

6 man canoes would have 1200 pounds of men and 4383 pounds of goods = 5583
7 man canoes would have 1400 pounds and 4383 pounds of goods = 5783 pounds

chances are they balanced canoes with 7 men having slightly less goods

averaging it out each canoe would need to hold 5650 pounds , probably more as they don't mention their own supplies.

if one cubic foot of displacement is equal to 62.4 pounds of flotation but to have a stable craft you need more than bare minimum figure it on 50 pounds of displacement =113 cubic feet of displacement

if you had a canoe with an average 4 foot width because cubic volume is easier in rectangles than canoe shape and you wanted to carry that weight with 1 foot of draft it would need to be 30 feet long.

that would let you have 24 inch sides on your canoe and keep 1 foot out of the water so you could take waves and such.

I have never been in a 30 foot canoe that I can recall , some that were close maybe 24 feet generally an 7-8 man boat it moved very well with everyone paddling the guy at the front if you had one could switch sides , the guy in the back was rudder man and 6 paddlers who kept in time with each other

Pete,

"Canoes du maitre" were the freighters of those days.

Generally 30-35 feet long and 4 to 5 feet wide. They weighed over 300 pounds empty.

The voyageur paddlers were beasts of men. They averaged about 5 foot 4, tall men were passed by, their legs took up too much room in the canoes. They were also portaging two packs at a time, 180 pounds total, probably more than their body weight.

These dudes were tough and fearless. They often ran rapids with half loads, to avoid portaging more than they had to.

Many rapids were named after them men that drowned trying to run them.

Hard work for sure. When there wasn't enough wind to use a sail, the boats were rowed, poled, or pulled with ropes (known as cordelling). Tough work.

In the Great Lakes, many of the journals talk about days of no movement while on Lake Superior due to high winds.

In 1834 at Fort Hall, in present day Idaho, firearms were listed as:

20 plain fusils (fowlers) @ $4.50
10 twisted (damascus) fusils @ $3.75
14 rifles @ $10.00
1 rifle @ $13.00

And for note, beaver traps were $2.00 each. In the mountains at Rendezvous they were $9.00.

The folks before us were incredibly tough and resourceful.. Makes me cringe just to think about a trip like that!!