16 RECORDS OF THK AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



and do not come within tlie scope of a work dealing with Aus- 

 tralian Ethnography. At the same time mention may be made 

 here of tlie toy sailing boats made by the boys at Mapoon 

 (Batavia River), with a single outrigger, always on the weather- 

 side, which can be shifted from port to star-boaid and vice-versa 

 as occasion requires; liow far tliis innovation is due to civilising 

 influences under missionary auspices, it is impossible to say. 



At Cape Bedford the blacks have native names for European 

 made vessels. A steamer is known as gol-ngoi, but tlie actual 

 etymology of the word is not known ; a l)Oat is called yulal, a 

 term signifying any flat piece of wood, and so applied to the 

 planks with which it is built. 



19. In the Brisbane District" a canoe was called kundul, the 

 san:e term that was applied to every kind of tree-bark except that 

 of the tea-tree, which was known as rguduru. The tree which 

 was particularly used for making canoes was the buhirtchu or 

 " bastard maliogany," the bark of which did not split, but when 

 this was not obtainable recourse was had to the diura, one of the 

 "stringy-barks," though this was liable to crack during the pro- 

 gress of manufacture. The canoe was always made out of one 

 sheet of bark, from ten or twelve to as much sometimes as twenty 

 feet long, which was removed from the tree, during spring-time, 

 as follows: — The native would climb up to the necessary height 

 and make a deep transverse cut the whole circumference of the 

 tree, with a vertical one where convenient ; while still up, he 

 would pick oli'all the rough outer scales with a small spatulate 

 pointed stick (which had its special name), and as he descended 

 lower and lower would both lengthen tlie vertical cut, and peel 

 ofl" the bark, finally cutting it cfl' below after having been thus 

 cleaned. When removed, this sheet of bark was tied round at 

 each end to keep it funnel-like, fires lighted inside, and the 

 whole piece kept revolving, not only to prevent it catcliing alight 

 but also to get it uniforndy heated. This j)rocess rendered the 

 bark more pliable, with ihe result that wlien subsequently the 

 men standing at either extrendty bent each up, it could easily be 

 crinkled, folded, and skewered, in a manner almost identical with 

 the pleat-type of bark trough," save that the adjacent surfaces 

 of each fold were not pressed into such close apposition. The 

 gunwale was strengthened by fixing along its inner edge a long 

 withe of wattle (Acacia, sp.) or nanuam (Malaisia tortuosa 



" From iiifonnatioD giveu mo hy Mr. T. Petrie. 

 "> Roth — Hull. 7— Sect. 58. 



