FO WLING-P UNTS. 45 5 



to a small craft ; it is heavy in water, and requires 

 so many tacks to keep it on, and others in fresh 

 places for renewal, or when it loosens. This tears 

 and racks the sides badly in a few years. What 

 answers better is a thin strip of oak, some quarter 

 of an inch thick and three to four inches high, on 

 the lower edge of either side, and level with the 

 floor. The same screws and nails that hold the 

 side-planks may go through these strips into the 

 bottom edge and inside floor-strip. When, after 

 many seasons, this wood may happen to be worn 

 through, replace it with new, and no fresh holes, as 

 with copper, will be required. These strips, one 

 on either side, forward, may be fined down and 

 meet at the cutwater. They should be four and 

 a half feet long, and bevelled off at their upper 

 edges, and they will be a source of strength to a 

 light-sided craft. 



To stuff all seams and joints outside that you can 

 get even the point of a knife into, use putty made of 

 red and white lead well mixed. As to colour, a 

 dull unreflecting white or very light slate is best. 

 Not a "green," to imitate the sea, as I saw not long 

 ago on a fowler's punt, and was informed by its 

 owner (a novice) imitation of the water was the 

 reason of its peculiar hue. Punts are nearly always 

 built far stronger and heavier than they need be. 

 If they were twice the size they usually are, the 

 floor would scarcely require to be an inch thick. 

 When I hear of fowlers building small single punts 

 with an inch thickness of floor (oak even some- 

 times), I wonder they don't make them of iron or 

 copper at once. 



