CANOES 19 



always was. Indeed, it is simpler now than 

 it used to be some years ago, before the days 

 of tugs and railways. Then it was craft and 

 cargo in one. It was steered by immense oars, 

 as sailing vessels were before the days of 

 rudders ; other gigantic oars were occasion- 

 ally used to propel it, like an ancient galley ; 

 it carried loose-footed square sails, like the 

 ships of Tarshish ; and its crew lived aboard 

 in shacks and other simple kinds of shelter, 

 like the earliest Egyptian cabins ages before 

 the captivity of Israel. 



The dug-out has the humblest, though the 

 longest, history of any craft the hand of man 

 has ever shaped. At one time it rose to the 

 dignity of being the liner and the man-of-war 

 of the Pacific coast ; for the giant trees there 

 favoured a kind of dug-out that the savage 

 world has never seen elsewhere, except in 

 certain parts of equatorial Africa. At another 

 time, only a century or two ago, dug-outs of 

 twenty feet or so were used in trade between 

 the St Lawrence and the Hudson. They were 

 of white pine, red or white cedar, or of tulip 

 tree ; and their crews poled standing or 

 paddled kneeling, for they had no thwarts. 

 They carried good loads, went well, with their 

 canoe-shaped ends, and lasted ten or twelve 



