442 CANOES. IMPLEMENTS. 



On the north-eastern coasts they use canoes made from the 

 trunks of trees, each canoe being formed from a single trunk, 

 probably hollowed by fire. "They are about fourteen feet 

 long, and being very narrow, are fitted with an outrigger."* 

 Farther south the canoes were nothing but a piece of bark, 

 tied together at the ends and kept open in the middle by 

 small bows of wood. The western tribes had no canoes,-f- 

 owing, according to King,J to the absence of large timber. 

 Instead of a boat they used a log of wood, on which they sat 

 astride, with a bit of bark in each hand, which served as 

 a paddle. Some tribes fasten four or five mangrove stems 

 together so as to make a small float or raft. The natives 

 observed by Dampier were even worse off in this respect ; 

 they had " no boats, canoes, or bark logs/' Yet they dwelt 

 on the shore, lived principally on fish, and swam about from 

 island to island. The Western Australians, according to Jukes, 

 had neither boats nor rafts, " and. the islands close to the 

 mainland had never been visited by them previously to the 

 founding of our colonies." So also some of the tribes near 

 Sydney are said to have been unable to swim.|| The absence 

 of canoes is very remarkable in a people whose habits were 

 so littoral, and whose food was derived almost entirely from 

 the sea. 



The implements of the Australians are very simple. They 

 have no knowledge of pottery, and carry water in skins or 

 in vessels made of bark. They are quite ignorant of warm 

 water, which strikes them with great amazement.^]" Some 

 of them carry "a small bag, about the size of a moderate 



* Freycinet, Voyage autour du In his view, however, of Ca- 



Moncle, vol. ii. p. 705 ; Jukes, Voy- reening Bay, the country appears 



age of H.M.S. Fly, ii. 243. to be well wooded. 



t Cook's First Voyage, vol. iii. || Voyage of the Novara, English 



p. 643. Trans, vol. iii. p. 36. 



I 1. c. vol. i. pp. 38, 43, 49 ; vol. ii. IT D'Urville, vol. i. p. 461. 

 pp. 66, 69. 



