286 THE OCEAN. 



wholly by the eye, without line, rule, or square, 

 and that the seams were closed merely by, as it 

 were, tying the planks to each other with cinet, 

 it does seem surprising that their canoes could even 

 live in a sea. Yet they were strong and secure, 

 and many of them remarkably dry and comfortable, 

 leaking very little, for they were accustomed to 

 insert between the seams the cocoa-nut husk, which 

 always swells when wetted ; and the expansion of 

 this substance closed the crevices neatly. Their 

 craft, though varying much in size and minor 

 points, according to the purposes for which they 

 were intended, were built nearly on the same model ; 

 the stem and stern generally being curved upwards, 

 so as to project out of water. As they were much 

 higher than wide, they needed some contrivance 

 to obtain uprightness ; and this they secured, either 

 by lashing two togetlier by cross-beams, making 

 the double canoe just now alluded to, or by means 

 of an outrigger, which is a stout plank or spar, 

 parallel to the side of the canoe, and fixed at some 

 distance from the larboard side, by two horizontal 

 poles, which connect it with the vessel. The out- 

 rigger floats on the water, and while it remains fast, 

 there is no possibility of capsizing. They were 

 furnished with masts, sails made of the leaves of 

 the pandanus, woven into a sort of matting, and 

 rigging made of cocoa-nut fibre, which makes good 

 rope. 



The mode in which these scattered isles were 

 peopled is a subject of interesting discussion, as 

 the physical charactcsr of the inhabitants, their Ian- 



