u 



KECOKDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



Fijf. 13. 



the Papuan central staging : they iiave already disappeared at the 

 Bloom Held River, where the booms pierce the gunwale direct 

 (PI. vi., fig. 2). The number of double booms will depend upon 



the size of the vessel, not less than 

 four nor more than eight having been 

 ol)served, a double one occasionally 

 being made to pierce tlie extreme 

 Ijows direct ; their two components are 

 lashed — one above, tiie other below — 

 to the angle formed by the tojis of the 

 crossed pegs morticed into the float. 

 Two double-booms are sometimes 

 placed in very close apposition. At 

 Cape Bedford, where the best speci- 

 mens of canoe are to be seen, and 

 whence the cast-offs arid inferior ones 

 ai-e traded to Cooktown, the pegs are made from a special timber 

 (KYI. dadetchin), while the floats are cut from a peculiarly light 

 wood which is cast up on the beach, and preserved until required. 

 The bow-end of the dug-out being made from the (wider) butt-end 

 of the tree, it happens that the distance of attachment of the float 

 from the side of the body is somewhat nearer in front than 

 l)ehind : in other words, the total width of the vessel as a whole 

 is practically the same fore and aft, an arrangement which would 

 appear ♦^o be advantageous. Here at Cape Bedford, the dug-out is 

 generally dragged down to the water's edge by three individuals, 

 then put in the shallow water, and jiunted along with two poles 

 — one at the bows, the other at the stern — until such time as the 

 water i.s deep enough for the paddles to be made use of. At 

 Flinders Island in 1902, I saw a dug-out canoe with stretchers 

 placed within it cross-wise apparently with the object of pre- 

 venting the sides approximating too much, an arrangement which 

 recalled the crossed forked sticks supporting the ties in the Penne- 

 futher River bark canoes. The Bloomfield River dug outs only 

 differ from the Cape Bedford and Flinders type in the absence of 

 wash-boards. 



16. From the Mossman River down to Cape Grafton the dug-out 

 is cut very square at either extremity (PI. vii.), it often being very 

 diflii'ult, in tlie ab.sence of the outrigger, to distinguish bow from 

 stern, the former if anything being the larger ; neither is raised 

 above tiie level of the body. The space between the gunwale is 

 extremely narrow, the sides being cut to overlap ; the occupants 

 sitting on the double-booms are obliged to have their legs cros.sed 

 one (iver the other, and yet 1 have known Hve or six people at 



