314 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



any of our utensils in preference to their own, except the saw, whose obvious 

 power in diminishing their labour, led them to adopt it without hesitation. In 

 particular, they contrived to forge from the iron they procured of us, a kind of 

 tool, which answered the purpose of hollowing out large trees much better than 

 any utensil we could give them. This business they accomplished by main 

 strength, with a flat stone by way of anvil, and a round one which served the 

 purpose of an hammer; and with these instruments they shaped the iron from 

 the fire into a tool bearing some resemblance to a cooper's adze, which they fast- 

 ened to an handle of wood with cords made of sinews ; and being sharpened at 

 the end, was extremely well adapted to the uses for which it was intended. 



" Their large war canoes were generally finished on the spot where the trees 

 grew of which they are made, and then dragged to the water-side. We have 

 seen some of them which were fifty-three feet in length, and eight feet in breadth. 

 The middle part of these boats is the broadest, and gradually narrows to a point 

 at each end ; but their head or prow is generally much higher than the stern. 



"As their bottoms are rounded, and their sides flam out, they have conse- 

 quently sufficient bearings, and swim firmly in the water. They have no seats, 

 but several pieces of wood, about three inches in diameter, are fixed across them, 

 to keep the sides firm, and preserve them from being warped. The rowers gen- 

 erally sit on their hams, but sometimes they make use of a kind of small stool, 

 which is a great relief to them. In the act of embarking they are extremely 

 cautious, each man regularly taking the station to which he has been accustomed. 

 Some of these canoes are polished and painted, or cui'iously studded with human 

 teeth, particularly on the stern and the prow. The sides were sometimes adorned 

 with the figure of a dragon with a long tail, of much the same form as we see on 

 the porcelain of China, and in the fanciful paintings of our own country. We 

 were much struck with this circumstance, and took some pains to get at the his- 

 tory of it ; but it was among many other of our enquiries to which we could not 

 obtain any satisfactory answer. 



"After we had been some time in King George's Sound, the natives began 

 to make use of sails made of mats, in imitation of ours. We had, indeed, rigged 

 one of Hanna's large canoes for him, with a pendant, &c. &c. of which he was 

 proud beyond measure ; and he never approached the ship but hoisted his pen- 

 dant, to the very great diversion of our seamen. 



" The paddles are nicely shaped, and well polished with fish-skin : they are 

 about five feet six inches in length ; and the blade, which is about two feet long, 

 is pointed like a leaf, and the point itself is lengthened several inches, and is 

 about one broad. At the end of the handle there is a transverse piece of wood 

 like the top of a crutch. These paddles the natives use in a most dextrous man- 

 ner, and urge on the canoes with inconceivable swiftness. 



" In no one circumstance of their different occupations do the natives of 



