C'AXOE SHOOTING. 319 



POOLE CANOE. 



(Or shooting from the creeks, with a large shoulder 



gun.) 



THE Poole canoe is built sharp at both ends, on 

 the plan of the Greenland whale-boat, except being 

 so flat at the bottom as to draw only two or three 

 inches of water, and so light as to weigh only from 

 sixty to two hundred pounds. For this canoe, &c. 

 see the plates and instructions, with the assistance of 

 which a carpenter ought not to mistake in building 

 one of these boats. In making all canoes for gunning, 

 the builder should be careful to have the bottoms of 

 them a little rounded (say about half an inch of 

 convex, " amidships," for a bottom three feet broad) ; 

 and, what is of still more consequence, a little " kam- 

 melled," or sprung ; that is, gradually rising " fore 

 and aft," in order to " give them life." They will, 

 otherwise, row miserably heavy, and, when they get 

 aground, suck the mud or sand so much, that, in 

 order to get them off again, you might be forced to 

 stand up ; and this would frighten away the fowl. 

 If, however, the bottom of a canoe is too much kam- 

 melled, she will never keep steady in going to birds. 

 Some people, for this reason, leave hollow grooves 

 between the bottom planks. I should say, that to 

 every five feet of plank I would give about one inch 

 of " kammel," so that the bottom of the canoe here 



