THE CASK-PONTOON. 49 



river, and having no regular " pontoons " at hand. It is made 

 simply by lashing a number of empty casks to a flooring of 

 beams and planks. 



The amount of weight which such a structure will support is 

 really astonishing, as long as the casks remain whole, and to 

 upset it is almost impossible. Even cannon can be taken 

 across wide expanses of water in perfect safety, and there is 

 hardly anything more awkward of conveyance than a cannon, 

 with its own enormous and concentrated weight, and all the 

 needful paraphernalia of limber, ammunition (which may not 

 be wetted, and of immense weight), horses, and men. 



Yet even this heterogeneous mass of living and lifeless weight 

 can be carried on the cask-raft, which is an exact imitation of 

 the living raft of the Violet Snail. 



BENEATH the cask-pontoon is to be seen a sketch of a very 

 curious vessel which is in use on the Nile, and I rather think 

 on the Ganges also, though I am not quite sure. It is formed 

 in the following manner : 



In both countries there are whole families who from genera- 

 tion to generation have lived in little villages up the river, and 

 gained their living by making pottery, mostly of a simple 

 though artistic form, the vessel having a rather long and 

 slender neck, and a more or less globular body. 



When a man has made a sufficient number of these vessels, 

 he lashes them together with their mouths uppermost, and 

 then fixes upon them a simple platform of reeds. The papyrus 

 was once largely used for this purpose, but it seems to be 

 gradually abandoned. 



He thus forms a pontoon exactly similar in principle with 

 the cask -pontoon which has just been described. Then, taking 

 his place on his buoyant raft, he floats down the river until he 

 comes to some populous town, takes his raft to pieces, sells the 

 pots and reeds, and makes his way home again by land. 



