QQQ, COOKS SECOND VOYAGE OCT. 



But nothing can be a more demonstrative evidence 

 of their ingenuity than the construction and make of 

 their canoes, which, in point of neatness and work- 

 manship, exceed every thing of this kind we saw in 

 this sea. They are built of several pieces sewed 

 together with bandage, in so neat a manner, that on 

 the outside it is difficult to see the joints. AH the 

 fastenings are on the inside, and pass through kants 

 or ridges, which are wrought on the edges and ends 

 of the several boards which compose the vessel, for 

 that purpose. They are of two kinds, viz. double 

 and single. The single ones are from twenty to 

 thirty feet long, and about twenty or twenty-two 

 inches broad in the middle ; the stern terminates in 

 a point, and the head something like the point of a 

 wedge. At each end is a kind of deck, for about 

 one third part of the whole length, and open in the 

 middle. In some the middle of the deck is decor- 

 ated with a row of white shells, stuck on little pegs 

 wrought out of the same piece which composes it. 

 These single canoes have all out-riggers, and are 

 sometimes navigated with sails, but more generally 

 with paddles, the blades of which are short, and 

 broadest in the middle. The two vessels which com- 

 pose the double canoe are each about sixty or seventy 

 feet long, and four or five broad in the middle ; and 

 each end terminates nearly in a point ; so that the 

 body or hull differs a little in construction from the 

 single canoe; but is put together exactly in the same 

 manner ; these having a rising in the middle round 

 the open part, in the form of a long trough, which is 

 made of boards, closely fitted together, and well 

 secured to the body of the vessel. Two such vessels 

 are fastened to, and parallel to eacli other, about six 

 or seven feet asunder, by strong cross beams, secured 

 by bandages to the upper part of the risings above 

 mentioned. Over these beams and others, which are 

 supported by stanchions fixed on the bodies of the 

 canoes, is laid a boarded platform: All the parts 



