EAST BOTIILAND. 207 



A kind of boats used here to navigate 

 rapid and dangerous parts of the rivers, 

 are made of thin planks of spruce fir, and 

 are four or five fathoms long, and about 

 one broad in their middle. The sides are 

 five or six quarters of an ell deep ; the ex- 

 tremities compressed. The middle of the 

 boat is nearly semicylindrical, the keel 

 being raised up, or hollowed as it were by 

 the dilatation of the sides, in which all the 

 importance and peculiarity of the contri- 

 vance consists, for without this the vessel 

 would be much more easily overset in ra- 

 pid and shelvy places. Some of these boats 

 have no prominent keel at all ; others are 

 furnished with a slight one, chiefly in their 

 forepart, which is a little the highest, in 

 order to bear the better any shocks from 

 striking against stones ; so that if this 

 part be able to pass, the rest of the vessel 

 may go in safety. 



One sort of nets used for catching Sijk- 

 fish, (Salmo Lavaret us, or Gwiniad, before 

 mentioned) are five spans high, and of a 



