26 ALL AFLOAT 



of a handy little cruiser for all sorts of inland 

 waters. One like this, but built of basswood, 

 proved quite serviceable after more than ten 

 years' work, in the course of which it covered 

 several thousand miles along the Lower St 

 Lawrence, where the seas are often rough and 

 the low-tide landings always hard. 



But all similar craft, though looking like 

 canoes afloat, are no more like the true canoes 

 and kayaks in their constructional detail than 

 a bird is like a butterfly. The keel makes all 

 the difference. Everything in naval archi- 

 tecture springs from and is related to the keel. 

 ' Laying the keel ' means beginning the ship 

 in the only possible way, and ' two keels to 

 one ' is an expression which every one under- 

 stands as meaning a naval preponderance in 

 that proportion. The keel is to the ribs of a 

 ship exactly what the backbone is to the ribs 

 of a man, and any craft built up from a keel, 

 no matter how small and simple it may be, 

 belongs to the third and apparently final type 

 of craft, which is as far ahead of the canoe 

 type as that is ahead of the dug-out, raft, 

 and log. 



An intermediate type that once did much 

 service, and still does a little, is the white 

 man's flat-bottomed boat, which could be 



