CANOES. 151 



previous easy stroke of 50 to the minute. Frequent stoppages 

 occur during the course of a long journey, either for enjoying a 

 chew of the betel-nut or for smoking a pipe ; and the average 

 speed, from this reason, would not exceed three miles an hour, 

 whilst a day's run, between daylight and dusk, in fine weather 

 would be from 25 to oO miles. 



When a corpse is being transported in a canoe to its last resting- 

 place in the sea by the natives of the Shortlands, the}^ adopt a 

 funeral stroke, pausing between each stroke of the paddle, and by 

 a slight back-water movement partly arresting the progress of the 

 canoe. I remember on one occasion, whilst watching a large canoe 

 starting from Ugi to the opposite coast of St. Christoval, remarking 

 their singular style of paddling. At every other stroke each man 

 raised his arm and paddle much higher in the air, and gave a. 

 vigorous dig into the water, a very eSective style as regards speed, 

 and one likely to impress a timid enemy with fear. . . . Before 

 leaving this subject, I should refer to the paddling-posture of these 

 natives. All of them in the difierent islands we visited squat down 

 with their legs crossed, facing the bow. The New Guinea practice 

 of standing up to paddle a canoe did not come under my observation 

 except in the case of outrigger canoes, and in such canoes it was not 

 the rule. I should infer that the ]^osture of sitting or standing to 

 paddle a canoe varies in accordance with the use of or non-employ- 

 ment of an outrioft^er. If, as in the case of the Solomon Island 

 canoes, outriggers are rarely used, then the sitting posture will be 

 found to be the one adopted, since the unaided stability of the canoe 

 does not permit of the standing posture. If, on the other hand, out- 

 riggers are usually employed, it follows that, as in certain parts of 

 New Guinea, the more effective posture of standing is preferred. 



As fish form a staple diet of a large proportion of these islanders, 

 much ingenuity is shown in the methods devised for catching them. 

 In the eastern part of the archipelago, kite-fishing is commonly em- 

 ployed. A kite^ is flown in the air from the end of a canoe, and to 

 it a fishing-line is attached in place of the usual tail. Whilst the 

 man in the canoe paddles slowly ahead, the movement of the kite 

 whisks the bait about on the surface of the water ; and when the 

 fish bites, the kite goes down. Instead of a hook and bait, the 

 natives usually employ for this mode of fishing some stout spider- 



1 Some of these kites, which I saw, had a form rudely representing a bird vvith expanded 

 •wings. Others had a sqxiarish form and were made of palm leaf. 



