HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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little towards the extremity, as with apparent intention of breaking of the waves.

■—“ But in nothing,” say navigators, “do the Esquimaux shew so much art, as intheir boats or canoes. They are made of that material called whalebone, aboutan inch thick and broad ; these are not set like ribs, but are from stem to sternfast sewed to each other with strong sinews, and being covered over with seals skins.They are from ten to twenty feet long, and about two feet broad ; they areformed like a weaver’s shuttle, sharp at both ends, so that they can be rowedeither way; and in making this pointedness, the consructors are of all things mostcurious ; for therein consists the strength of the vessel. In the middle of it arethe ribs, both to keep the sides asunder, and to form the hole in the coveringwherein the rower sits. They have a species of deck, formed of the same ma-terials; it is closely fastened to the sides, and in the middle of it is a round holeas large as the body of a man ; so that when he goes to sea he fixes himself in thathole, and stretching out his feet forward into the hollow of the boat, stops■up the hole so close with his frock, or loose upper garment, that no water canenter, though it were in the bottom of the sea. His frock is straight tied at hishand, his vvlists, and his neck ; his capouch is sewed also clofe to it, so that ifthe boat be overturned or overwhelmed in the sea, he rises up again without anywet either upon his skin, or in his boat. He is furnished with only one oar,which is about six feet long, with a paddle six inches broad, at either end ; thisserves him both to balance his boat and move it, which he does with that incre-dible celerity, that an English boat with ten oars, is not able to keep companywith them. A Danish relation affirms that the Esquimaux row so swift, thatthey even dazzle the eyes of spectators; and though they cross frequently, yetnever interfere or run foul of one another.”

Nor are these singular boats confined merely to the frozen region of theAtlantic, but extend under the same degree of latitude, into the South Seas : astill corroborating proof, except some intercourse is insisted upon to have existedbetween the Esquimaux and the inhabitants of the Fox Islands, of that generalintellectual spirit which directs mankind (making the proper allowances), toemploy nearly the same method, in supplying their wants or their desires.The following account of them is given by Captain Meares, who visited the Foxand Schumagen Islands, in 1786.

“ It appears that the Russians, wherever they are settled, from some supposedpolitical reason, prohibit the natives from keeping canoes, of a size capable of carry-ing more than one person. These canoes are generally about twelve feet in length,

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