Keels are troublesome to make: lee-boards are effective substitutes, and are easily added to a rude boat or punt when it is desired to rig her as a sailing-craft.
Rudder.--A rude oar makes the most powerful, though not the most convenient rudder. In the lakes of North Italy, where the winds are steady, the heavy boats have a bar upon which the tiller of the rudder rests: this bar is full of small notches; and the bottom of the tiller, at the place where it rests on the bar, is furnished with a blunt knife-edge; the tiller is not stiffly joined to the rudder, but admits of a little play up and down. When the boatman finds that the boat steers steadily, he simply drops the tiller, which forthwith falls into the notch below it, where it is held tight until the steersman cares to take the tiller into his hand again.
Buoys.--An excellent buoy to mark out a passage is simply a small pole anchored by a rope at the end. It is very readily seen, and exposes so little surface to the wind and water, that it is not easily washed away. A pole of the thickness of a walking-stick is much used in Sweden. Such a buoy costs only a rope, a stick, and a stone. A tuft of the small-branches may be left on the top of the pole.
Log.--For a log use a conical canvas bag thus--
When the peg is drawn out by the usual jerk, the bag no longer presents its mouth to the water, but is easily drawn in by the line attached to its point.
Boat Building.--Caulking.--Almost anything that is fibrous does for caulking the seams of a boat. The inner bark of trees is one of the readiest materials.
Securing Planks.--In default of nails, it is possible to drill or to burn holes in the planks and to sew them together with strips of hide, woodbine, or string made from the inner bark of fibrous trees. Holes may be drilled on precisely the same principle as that which I have described in making fire by friction.
Lengthening Boats.--If you have an ordinary boat, and wish to make it of greater burden, saw it in half and lengthen it. Comparatively coarse carpentering is good enough for this purpose.