THE WILD-FOWL CANOE. 231 



with one oar 5 they are besides sharp at both ends, which is a gross 

 error, because of the difficulty of sculling such a boat with any 

 certainty by means of one oar ; though it might be pushed ahead in 

 shallow water with a long- pole weighted at the lower end. But, as 

 the canoe is more frequently employed in creeks and narrow channels, 

 among islands and marshes, it is more desirable to have a boat such 

 as may be sculled ahead steadily and surely, in a straight line with 

 the birds, which the round-bottomed canoe, with keelson, enables the 

 fowler to perform with ease and certainty ; yet cannot be done with 

 the Poole canoe.* 



Another disadvantage in the Poole canoe in being flat-bottomed is, 

 the difficulty of launching when lying ashore, or accidentally getting 

 aground on a sand bank ; it appears to stick to the soil with the per- 

 tinacity of a flat-fish, and requires two or more hands to move it. 

 The round-bottomed canoe, on the contrary, may be launched by one 

 person ; and though it has an inch or two of keelson projecting below 

 the bottom, it draws so little extra water that it may generally be 

 taken over the same shallows as a flat-bottomed boat. It also rows 

 lighter, and is safer in rough water. 



The wild-fowl canoe is seldom sailed, its form and the purpose to 

 which it is employed rendering such a proceeding impracticable. 



* Colonel Hawker recommends the Poole canoe, as well adapted for the purpose ; 

 but he had probably never seen the superior form of wild-fowl canoes used at some 

 other places on the eastern coast, or he would have acknowledged the inferiority of 

 the former. 



