CATALOGUE OF THE WATEECEAFT COLLECTION. 275 



sheet copper or coated with' lacquer. Nail holes and seams are 

 caulked with fiber of cedar bark. The sail is usually made of a very 

 fine and stout kind of sedge matting — a sort of grass cloth — which, 

 instead of being sewed together as sails are in America, are laced 

 together in vertical breadths; they are baggy and belly out exces- 

 sively in a fresh breeze. 



The mast is supported only by a single forestay extending to 

 the steam head ; it can be easily taken down when it is necessary to 

 use sculls, or when it must be replaced by a shorter mast, which is 



FIG. 91. JAPANESE FISHING BOAT. 



always kept on board for use in heavy storms. Sails are used 

 only with a free wind. When sailing is impracticable, the boat is 

 propelled by six sculls, which are worked on pegs in the projecting 

 end of crossbeams extending beyond the gunwales. The method 

 of sculling is peculiar. The Japanese do not row as Americans or 

 Europeans do; they propel their boats by sculling, seldom or never 

 lifting the oar blade from the water. They stand and keep a perfect 

 stroke or time with their oars, which is more completely insured by 

 the chanting or a monotonous refrain, " every alternate man swing- 

 ing his body in opposite directions, one pushing the other pulling. 

 The rowers thus vibrating half of them one way, and half the other, 

 the boat is kept perfectly upright as she dashes through, or rather 

 over, the water.'' 



