NORTH QUEENSLAND ETHNOGRAPHY — ROTH. 



13 



dug-outs with both hands, on either side of the canoe alterna- 

 tively, is fairly similar in all these northern types, with a long 

 comparatively -narrow blade. 



Fig. 11. 



14. From the Flinders Group down to Cape Grafton there is a 

 suppression of the left (port-side) outrigger, and following upon 

 this — to ensure rigidity of the surviving float, an increase in the 

 number of booms ; to restore the centre of gravity of the body 

 to the vertical is the intervention of comparatively large pegs be- 

 tween the boom-extremities and the float. At the same time, 

 travelling from north to south, the stern projection gradully 

 becomes more and more developed, until it closely approximates 

 that of the bows, both extremities simultaneously changing from 

 oval to square. The booms are all double, i.e., in sets of two, and 

 form a staging on to whicli the spears and harpoons may be laid 

 or tied. On the authority of reliable natives I learn that Cape 

 Grafton constitutes the southern limit of the dug-out, and that 

 any such vessels found below this are not of local coastal 

 manufacture. 



15. Between the Flinders and the Endeavour Rivers two 

 wash-boards are lashed on to the outer sides of the gunwale, with 

 or without an intervening coil of tea-tree bark, and through their 

 upper free margins the double booms are pegged (figs. 12 and 13). 

 Though I have spoken of these narrow planks as wash-boards — and 



Fig. 12. 



the}' probably .serve that purpose — I fail to understand their 

 signification unless they give indication of the lateral supports of 



