ARTS OF NAVIGATION AND NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. 3 



and since very little experience in the use of the paddle would 

 show, that the canoe might be impelled, by its means, in still 

 water, or even, by due exertion, in opposition to a current, 

 this larger bark would in time become a galley, swiftly impel- 

 led over the waters, by numerous oars. It becoming neces- 

 sary, in the further progress of Civilization, which had in 

 other departments of human action been simultaneously pro- 

 ceeding, to embark still greater numbers of men and greater 

 stores of property, two excavated trees would be united longi- 

 tudinally, as exemplified in the double canoes of certain island- 

 ers in the Pacific Ocean at the present time; portions of other 

 trees would afterwards be added ; and at length it would be 

 found, that a number of pieces of timber, properly framed and 

 prepared, might be so united together, as to form a much 

 stronger and more convenient vessel than the mere trunks of 

 trees ; and thus would arise thus in fact actually arose the 

 art of NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. 



But while all this was effecting, equal improvements were 

 made in the form of the vessel, as adapted to impulsion through 

 the resisting waters. The early navigators, whose lives and pro- 

 perty were dependent on the security and rapidity of the voyage, 

 would be very keen observers of every circumstance attending 

 it; the utilitv would soon be perceived of giving a peculiar form 

 to the fore-part of the vessel, so as to enable it readily to divide 

 the waters through which it had to pass, and afterwards to 

 throw them off on each side; the nature of this form, as the 

 properties of curves became known in the progress of Mathe- 

 matical Science, were rigidly investigated ; and at length, by 

 uniting a knowledge of the resistance of fluids to bodies pass- 

 ing through them (acquired by the combination of long expe- 

 rience with experimental research), with still more profound 

 mathematical conclusions, the hollowed tree of the savage 

 voyager became exchanged, for the immense and elaborate 

 structure of timber, possessing the form of what is called the 

 Solid of Least Resistance, which the Indiaman and the Man- 

 of-War now exhibit. During these refinements of the art, 

 however, many others of equal value were proceeding, with 

 equal steps: in the infancy of navigation a method of convert- 

 ing the force of the wind, which must at first have proved a 

 serious obstacle, into a means of progress on the waters, 

 would have been found, in the stretching of the skin of an 

 animal, or perhaps the broad leaf of some tropical plant, upon 

 a pole or frame setup in the boat. In certain states of the wind 

 it would be necessary to take this down, in order to avoid the 

 upsetting of the bark ; the next step of improvement would 

 be, so to suspend the skin or the leaf r as to enable the boatman 



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