cooper! bibliography OF TBTBES OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO 203 



Typus [i. e., the plank boat], sicher nicht sein Urbild." Dr. Fried- 

 erici, oii the contrary, hokls {a, 43) that "die Dalca ist nachweisbar 

 aus dem eben bcschriebencn Kami [i. e., the bark canoe] der Magal- 

 haes-Strasse entstanden." A third possibiHty is the independent 

 development of the two boats, the plank boat from the dugout which 

 was in common use among the southern Chileans (Rosales, a, vol. i, 

 173-174), and the built-up bark canoe from a hypothetical one-piece 

 bark in distant pre-Columbian times. 



The finding of the built-up bark canoe from the earliest days of 

 IMagellanic discovery among natives so far removed from the sphere 

 of Chonoan or Cliilotan influence as those of the eastern end of the 

 Strait of Magellan seems to argue against Dr. Graebner's hypothesis; 

 while the apparent absence, of types intermediate between the plank 

 boat and the dugout, such as are found in Polynesia, makes somewhat 

 against the third possibility above mentioned, so far as the origin of 

 the plank boat is concerned. 



As for the second theory, it is true, as Dr. Friederici says, that the 

 slabs of beech bark were very thick — almost true planks in bulk. 

 ]V[oreover, given the existence of the beech-bark canoe in southern 

 Araucanian watere — probably prior to the Araucanian mvasion — the 

 substitution of wood for bark would have been a readily suggested 

 and easily realized improvement among a plank-making people. 

 Nevertheless, such a genesis of the plank boat from the bark canoe, 

 while the more probable of the three theories, can hardly be said to 

 be demonstrated. 



Plank boat and Pacific influence. — If the Kulturkreis theory should 

 prove, with further research, to apply to South America as well as it 

 appears to apply to Indo-Oceania, there will be some ground for sus- 

 pectmg an ultimate Oceanian origin for the Chonoan-Araucanian 

 plank boat, as Dr. Graebner holds. Prof. Dixon (53-54), even 

 though rejecting in the main tlie theory of the Oceanic origin of 

 American cultural strata, leaves open to a certain extent tlie question 

 of the possible Oceanic origin of some elements, including the plank 

 boat, of American aboriginal culture. 



In the present state of the evidence, however, a native origin of 

 the Chonoan-Araucanian plank boat seems more probable. The 

 substitution of planks for bark slabs would under the circumstances 

 have been an easy step for the southern Araucanians or Chonos, just 

 as in recent times the Fuegians have readily substituted iron and 

 glass for bone and shell in their weapons and tools. IVIoreover, the 

 archipelagic conditions under which these Indians were living were 

 a powerful stimulus to the development of the art of boat building, 

 as such conditions were in the Caribbean, the Santa Barbara Islands, 

 and the northwest coast of North America. Again these Indians 

 were intelligent and inventive enough under the pressure of local 



