"No; why do you ask?"
"This boat has been used by some one, and not very long ago, at that. Notice how the forward sides of these notches are worn. It also seems that civilized people have been using the boat."
The information was so startling that neither of the boys could answer for a moment. Did they have another mystery to contend with?
But George was alert on the questioning end of any proposition. "Do you really think white people have had the boat? I do not see anything that would make you think so."
"If they were savages they wouldn't use the oarlocks or notches, as they row free-hand, almost without exception; but get a white man in a boat, and the first thing he looks for is a place to put his oars in. This incident in itself shows one of the distinguishing features between the civilized and the uncivilized people."
"In what way is one civilized and the other not?"
"I did not say one was civilized and the other uncivilized. The most wonderful thing in the advancement of the human race from a state of savagery to civilization, was the discovery and utilization of a fulcrum. Whenever man, in an advanced state, undertakes to do anything, he uses a fulcrum of some kind."
"In what way is it so useful?"
"Primarily, in the form of a wedge, a pulley, a wheel and axle, an inclined plane, a screw or a lever. All these forms do the same thing as the simple lever; and what sort of mechanism could be made without some of these elements? The row-lock is simply the fulcrum for the oar, is it not? When Archimedes discovered the principles of the lever, he was so excited that he declared he could move the earth if he could find a fulcrum."
A careful examination of the notched gunwale showed conclusively that it had been used to a considerable extent. George sat and pondered over this. "I am sure we never used the boat enough with the oars to wear it in this way. Had you examined this when you said that the boat had not been long at the point where we found it?"