618 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ ETH, ANN. 38 
when the creeks are in flood. In place of paddles, with very shallow 
water, poles are brought into requisition. 
800. To drag a boat over a log lying across the surface of a stream 
the Indians will strip from the kara-kara (?Inga) trees pieces of bark, 
the inner surfaces of which contain a sort of viscous slime, place them 
with the slimy side up upon the log, and, like a sledge over the snow. 
the boat is easily drawn over (SR, m1, 436). I have seen the Pom- 
eroon Carib do this, and watched the Barama River Carib use the 
inner bark of the mora for a similar purpose. To navigate the 
Orinoco and tributary streams with better security when the weather 
threatens, the Indians make use of two canoes, a little distance apart, 
but joined by strong timbers fixed across stem, center, and stern (G, 
uu, 117). “There is no such thing as shipwreck on the coast ever 
heard of,” says Stedman. “If swamped, ete., the occupants jump 
overboard, where with one hand they hang onto the canoe, and with 
the other, and a calabash, they bail out the water ” (St, 1, 400). 
S01. In the absence of a portage, over which the emptied boat can 
be dragged along or behind the river bank, the manner in which the 
rapids or falls, when too strong to paddle up, can be ascended, is 
thus described by Hilhouse. The rapids do not fall in one sheet over 
a level edge, but force themselves through a number of fissures, large 
intermediate blocks of granite dividing the different shoots of the 
fall. At the base of these blocks there is an eddy into which the canoe 
is forced, where she becomes stationary, having no current either way. 
The crew now spring upon the rock and wade up as far as they can 
find footing (pl.179C). By means of a long and stout rope they then 
pull the canoe or corial into one of the shoots of the fall, where there 
is water enough to float it, and by main strength haul it up the 
ascent. They then take it out of the current and lay its stern against 
the top of the rock, from whose bottom they have just mounted, with 
its head right up the stream; and at a given signal they spring into it, 
and pulling with all their might, endeavor to cross diagonally the 
different currents until they get into another eddy. This is the time 
of the greatest danger in ascending. If they are not active in seizing 
their paddles, the head of the canoe is taken by the current, and it 
drifts broadside down the fall, where it must be infallibly upset 
(HiA, 28). In a similar way, on streaking a fall, the boat is sent 
stern first, with a rope attaclfed to its bows. 
$02. Gumilla, speaking of the Orinoco, says that as compared with 
the “bridges” used by the Indians the rafts (da/sas) are still the 
most dangerous means of crossing a stream. These rafts are the 
method most generally employed, because they only require some 
pieces of timber, bamboo, or bundles of reeds lashed together. AI- 
though half submerged, they cross the rivers with them (G, 1, 120). 
