MANGROVE FLOATS.
When we reached the Victoria River we found that the natives were accustomed to support themselves in crossing on logs of the light mangrove wood, either singly or tied up in bundles. The part near the roots seemed to be the favourite, as the stumps of the roots formed pegs on which to hang their spears, skins, or other possessions. The wood of the milk bush, which is about half the specific gravity of cork, is much used by the natives of equatorial Africa for the above purpose.
Long canoes.
At Shupanga, on the Zambesi, we have seen dug-out canoes, 50ft. long and about 5ft. wide and deep; at all events, a tall man standing beside them did not stoop much when he rested his arms upon the gunwale. These were hollowed and roughly shaped in their native forests, and hauled along nearly thirty miles, on rollers, by the long rope-like stems of the vines and creepers common in tropical forests. They were made only for the Portuguese. The upper part of the bows expanded into a platform sufficiently large for the chief boatman to stand on, while the stern was cut into an imitation of a run and dead wood, with a couple of holes in the after part, to which a rudder was secured by lashings. Nothing can be better for hollowing a canoe than the adze, but our Kroomen used a broad spud or chisel on a staff about 6ft. long, driven in a manner which will be best understood by a glance at the statue of “Michael overthrowing Satan.” The Krooman’s method of baling is characteristic. Should the canoe fill, all hands jump overboard, seize the gunwales, and sally her fore and aft till the water flies out at either end and leaves her absolutely free. We have seen a canoeman, near Lake Ngami, walk to one end of his leaky craft and, thus depressing it, cause the water to flow towards him, when, making his broad foot do duty for a scoop, by a succession of vigorous kicks, he soon had his canoe as free as he desired.
MASSOOLAH BOATS.
Massoolah boats.
In many parts of the world, boats of almost any size are built without metal fastenings, and the Massoolah boat of Madras may be taken as a fair type of those which are sewn or laced together. It will be seen in our illustration, copied by permission from a model in the United Service Museum, that the bottom boards are flat and form an oval elongated and pointed at the ends, so that the side planks curve naturally to meet the stem and stern-post, and give the boat an easy sheer. They are sewn together with coir yarn (or cocoa-nut husk fibre), the stitches crossing over a wadding of coir or straw, which presses on the seam and prevents much leakage. They are very elastic and give to the shock as they take the ground in the surf, which runs sometimes nearly 16ft. high; they are from 30ft. to 35ft. long, 10ft. or 11ft. wide, and 7ft. or 8ft. in depth; they pull double banked, six oars on a side, made of long rough poles with oval pieces of board lashed on the ends; they are steered by an oar. Our illustration shows also the catamaran or log float, on which the natives will pass to and from the shore when no other craft, not even the Massoolah boat, would venture. It must be remembered, however, that the men are themselves nearly amphibious, and care as little for being washed off their rafts as so many frogs; while the letters or small parcels they carry are kept dry only by being worn in a kind of oil-cloth turban.
Norwegian boats.