32 DESCRIPTION OF A WALRUS BOAT. 



both ends, and should be at once strong, light, 

 swift to row, and easily turned on her own 

 centre ; this latter quality is attained by having 

 the keel a good deal depressed in the middle. 

 She is always carvel-built, that construction of 

 boat being much less liable to damage from the 

 ice and the tusks of the walruses than a clinker- 

 built boat, as well as much easier to repair if 

 actually damaged; these boats have a very thick 

 and strong stem-piece and stern-piece, to resist 

 concussions with the ice. Each man rows with 

 a pair of oars hung in grummets to stout single 

 thole-pins : the steersman directs the boat by 

 also rowing a pair of oars, but rowing with his 

 face to the bow ; and as there are six thwarts, 

 each thirty inches apart, he can, if necessary, sit 

 and row like the others. This mode of steer 

 ing a boat has great advantages over either a 

 rudder, or a single steering oar as used by the 

 whalers, for it not only turns the boat much 

 quicker than either, but it economises the entire 

 strength of a man in propelling the boat. The 

 advantage of each man rowing a pair of oars is, 

 that the boat can be turned much quicker, and 

 the oars, being short, are less in the way 

 amongst ice. The harpooner always rows the 

 bow oars, and is, of course, the commander of 



