The River of Ocean — Primitive : 87 



regular sea voyages by primitive people on the ground that they had 

 no system of navigation. The argument ran that even though it were 

 proved that the curragh, the umiak and the outrigger canoe were 

 occasionally capable of long sea passages, the people using them, lack- 

 ing navigation, would still be incapable of building up migration 

 and trade. 



This argument never had the general value and authority that is 

 attributed to it. For a long time it has been accepted that celestial nav- 

 igation is not an absolute requirement for ocean travel. Today, as 

 well as in the past, sailors have made very successful passages steering 

 by the wind, utilizing permanent wind systems like the trades or peri- 

 odic systems like the monsoons. In recent years the argument has lost 

 what little force remained to it because we have discovered that at 

 least one people of simple culture did develop and use an effective 

 and natural system of celestial navigation. It seems probable that 

 the same or a somewhat similar system was employed by other early 

 navigators. 



Again it is the Polynesians who have supplied us with information 

 as to the system they developed and utilized. The system which they 

 employed has been explained by the aviator and navigator Harold 

 Gatty in a volume that is now generally available. This is the so-called 

 Raft Boo\. Gatty, with the aid of scientists and other advisors, pre- 

 pared this book to serve as a guide and method of navigation for avi- 

 ators operating over the Pacific during the period of World War II 

 and also for the use of others who might for various reasons find 

 themselves at sea on a life raft or in a lifeboat. Editions of the book 

 prepared during the war were as nearly as possible waterproof 

 both with respect to the text and with respect to simple equipment 

 supplied with the volume that could be used in elementary navigation. 



Gatty states that the essence of the Polynesian system was the rec- 

 ognition of the importance of the zenith star, the star directly over 

 the observer's head. This is in sharp contrast with what we may call 

 scientific methods of navigation, all of which have depended on devis- 

 ing and using instruments for determining the observed height of a 

 celestial body such as a star above the observed horizon. Gatty has 

 ascertained and proved that it is possible, with the unaided eye, to 

 determine either ashore or afloat with a relatively high degree of 

 accuracy which is the zenith star. It may be that our ability, with a 

 little experience and practice to determine this position, is in some 

 way dependent upon our human practice of walking upright and 

 thus having perpetually to accommodate ourselves to the preservation 



