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is by basket boats. Wilks, in his account ofSouthern India, (vol. ii. page 174,) justly ob-serves, “ this simple method of crossing wideand unfordable rivers, is recommended to mili-tary practice, for the facility with which thematerials may almost everywhere be obtained.”The frame-work, or baskets, are constructed ofsplit bamboos, and the covering formed of half-dressed hides. The method of constructingbasket boats, as described in Moore’s Narrativeof the Operations of Little’s Detachment, page122, is very simple. A number of pieces of splitbamboo are laid on the ground, crossing eachother near their centres, and fastened togetherwith leather thongs. The ends of the bamboosare then raised to a sufficient height, fixed bystakes at due distances from each other, andthen bound together by slips of bamboo, intro-duced, alternately, over and under the ribs, asthey may be called, beginning from the bottom,and working upwards, till the skeleton is com-pleted. The ends of the ribs, above the intendedheight or depth of the basket, are then cut off,and the stakes removed: the frame is thenturned over, and covered with hides, sewedtogether by leather thongs. The dimensionsusually given to these vessels, are 15 feet indiameter, and 3 feet deep. A basket boat of