EAGLE'S-NEST FLOAT 



" My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable weight." 

 — Robinson Crusoe. 



Those who study primitive races, applying their wisdom 

 and learning to the investigation of the origin of domestic 

 and other implements and contrivances, inform us that 

 the first boat was probably a log, on which the man sat 

 astride, using a stick as a means of propulsion. In 

 time the idea of hollowing the log occurred, Nature 

 undoubtedly presenting the model and inviting the 

 novice to squat inside. But what was the inhabitant 

 of a certain island in the Gulf of Carpentaria to do since 

 Nature failed to provide a tree big enough to possess 

 the degree of buoyancy necessary for his frail frame, 

 when he wished to cross the narrow channel separating 

 him from a lesser island where turtle are plentiful and 

 unsuspicious ? 



Being in status something above a wallaby — the 

 largest animal other than himself of his native land 

 which, when hunted, occasionally swam towards the 

 opposite shore, he constructed one or other of two rafts 

 or floats, both derivable from Nature's models. One 

 was in the form of an eagle's nest, and not nearly so 

 large as that in which some eaglets are reared, made by 

 interlacing branchlets of white mangrove until the mass 

 was sufficient to support his weight. With a double- 

 ended paddle rudely shaped from the thin buttress 



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