108

HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

The extraordinary similarity between the terms, may lead the modern en-quirer to suppose, without any very violent stretch of the imagination, he has

discovered

id navigii genus temperans ad medium processit fluminis.” Velleius,, lib. xi. cap. 107. One of thesavages, advanced in years, of noble stature, and dignified mien, having entered a boat formed out ofan hollow tree, according to the method practised by that people, worked it alone into the middle ofthe stream.” ~

Nor did the comparison between the Marine Architecture of the new and old world end here. Thscanoe of the Eskintaux covered with skin, was, as before observed, preceded twenty centuries sinceby contrivances exactly similar, used by the aboriginal Britons. “ Edatnnum in Britannico oceanovitiles naves corio circumsuto fiunt.” Pliny, lib. viii. cap. 56. At this very time, the inhabitantsbordering on the British ocean, construct flexible vessels covered with skins.” The same parity andconformity of ideas, which will be easily discovered on comparing the foregoing account with that ofthe modem canoes, might, if necessary, be easily traced through every different description of abo-riginal vessel in use, either among the ancients, or those countries which have been most recently dis-covered.

The canoe of the North American, called by him a Periagua, which serves him as a fishing-boaton the coast, and with which he travels and trades along his rivers, is made of bark. The aborigines!of Canada used the bark of the birch, and sometimes constructed them, of a sufficient size to hold four,or five persons. When the Erench held settlements in that country, the colonists learned to managethese canoes, which they called coureurs-de-bois and traitcurs, with as much adroitness as the nativesthemselves. In the commerce which thev carried on, visiting the houses of the Americans withEuropean merchandize, and purchasing peltry in exchange, two men travelled with each canoe; andwhen the falls of the rivers stopped their progress, they lifted at once their vessel, with its freight, upontheir shoulders, and carried the whole, burthen above or below the falls, according as their voyage wasup or down the stream. The canoe of the Indian, and the Charibbe, is the simple trunk of a tree,hewn on the outside to the desired form, and hollowed within by means of fire. Its size, consequently,depends upon that of the trees. It is rowed with paddles and oars, and sometimes with the assistanceof a little sail. The lading is placed in the bottom ; but as the canoe is not ballasted, it frequentlyoversets. The aftermost oars supply the purpose of a rudder.. The generality of canoes have projec-tions like those of barges, forward as well as abaft: in some instances, these projections terminate iivpoints ; in others, both stem and stem, are flat; and some very few are round. When a sail is to be*added, a little mast is set up forward. The sails are made of cloth, or, more commonly, of matting,of reed, or of cane. In Muscovy, however, on the lake of Wolda, the canoe is rounded fore and aft rit is much wider in the middle than at either end, and is worked with a single oar, which is placedat the stern: but all the other canoes of that country terminating sharply both ways, are elevatedbefore as well as behind. I hey are hardened by means of fire, protected from the weather by paint,and lashed round for the purpose of giving them additional strength.

The negro of the coast of Guiney obtains a canoe by merely hollowing the trunk of a tree : it is-of a long figure, and swims but with a very small part of its body above the surface of the sea: so-that he who sits behind, and guides the canoe, is frequently half covered with water. The widthis no more than that of one man, and the length sufficient for seven or eight. The men are seated

on.