90 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



bands are attached to the handle of the oar, yet it requires two 

 and sometimes three men to keep the canoe on her course. 

 Nearly all these large canoes have an outrigger. 



The general dimensions of the larger vessels rarely exceeds 

 100 feet by 20, but the measurements of one of the largest I 

 saw were as follows : 



FEKT. FEET. 



Length over all . .118 Length of mast . . .68 



Length of deck . . .50 Length of yards . . 90 



Width . ... . .34 



The capacity of such a canoe is such that it will carry 100 

 native passengers and several tons of freight. The ordinary 

 canoe is simply a 'dug-out,' with an outrigger, and these are 

 common to the whole of the Pacific, and in fact, with the 

 single exception of the Solomon Isles, are to be found from 

 Ceylon in the west to the Marquesas in the east. I have had 

 some little experience of short trips in canoes, and unromantic 

 as it may seem, I infinitely prefer a coasting-steamer for inter- 

 insular travel. 



The Fijians and other islanders of the South Pacific are 

 good sailors on European-rigged craft, and are capital divers 

 and swimmers, as the following cutting from a Fiji newspaper 

 testifies : 



' A Tongan and his wife, the sole survivors of twenty-two 

 who were lately capsized in a canoe near Totoya, arrived 

 recently in Levuka. The man was severely bitten by a shark 

 on the heel, and he and his wife, after being a day and a half 

 in the water, reached Totoya. All the rest of their friends 

 were eaten by sharks ; but they managed to frighten off these 

 ravenous monsters by constantly waving their sulus in the 

 water. Though completely exhausted when they reached the 

 shore, they seem now none the worse for their terrible swim.' 



