Native Boat-Building. 425 



minate in high-poiuted beaks more or less carved, and orna- 

 mented with a plume of feathers. They are not hollowed out 

 of a tree, but are regularly built of planks running from end 

 to end, and so accurately fitted that it is often difficult to find 

 a place where a knife-blade can be inserted between the 

 joints. The larger ones are from 20 to 30 tons burden, and 

 are finished ready for sea without a nail or particle of iron be- 

 ing used, and with no other tools than axe, adze, and auger. 

 These vessels are handsome to look at, good sailers, and ad- 

 mirable sea-boats, and will make long voyages with perfect 

 safety, traversing the whole Archipelago from New Guinea 

 to Singapore in seas which, as every one who has sailed much 

 in them can testify, are not so smooth and tempest-free as 

 word-painting travellers love to represent them. 



The forests of Ke jjroduce magnificent timber, tall, straight, 

 and durable, of various qualities, some of which are said to be 

 superior to the best Indian teak. To make each pair of 

 planks used in the construction of the larger boats an entire 

 tree is consumed. It is felled, often, miles away from the 

 shore, cut across to the proper length, and then hewn longi- 

 tudinally into two equal portions. Each of these forms a 

 plank by cutting down with the axe to a uniform thickness of 

 three or four inches, leaving at first a solid block at each end 

 to prevent splitting. Along the centre of each plank a series 

 of projecting pieces are left, standing up three or four inches, 

 about the same width, and a foot long ; these are of great im- 

 portance in the construction of the vessel. When a sufficient 

 number of planks have been made, they are laboriously drag- 

 ged through the forest by three or four men each to the 

 beach, where the boat is to be built. A foundation-piece, 

 broad in the middle and rising considerably at each end, is 

 first laid on blocks and properly shored up. The edges of 

 this are worked true and smooth with the adze, and a plank, 

 properly curved and tapering at each end, is held finnly up 

 against it, while a line is struck along it which allows it to be 

 cut so as to fit exactly. A series of auger-holes, about as 

 large as one's finger, are then bored along the opposite edges, 

 and pins of very hard wood are fitted to these, so that the two 

 planks are held firmly, and can be driven into the closest con- 

 tact j and difficult as this seems to do without any other aid 



