49^ 



NATURE 



SScpt. 23, 1880 



quarters. To remedy this defect they were accustomed, 

 about the middle of the century, to stick the handles of 

 their daggers into the muzzles of their guns in order to 

 use them as pikes." Implements modified on this prin- 

 ciple were called " plug-bayonets '' (Fig. 2, 1, i). One of 

 these in the collection has the date 1647 upon it. The 

 objection to this was that the handles stopped up the 

 muzzle, and the gun could never be fired with the bayonet 

 fixed. Many of the dagger-handles had rings on the 

 guard (Fig. 2, 3), and this suggested the idea of fastening 

 the ring on to the muzzle, and the dagger or plug-bayonet 

 was thus secured on to the outside of a spring, so that 

 the firelock could be loaded and fired wdth fixed bayonets. 

 The first introduction to this weapon was in one of the 

 campaigns in Flanders, in the time of William 111., and 

 greatly were our men astonished at being fired at with 

 fixed bayonets. The series contains all stages leading 

 from the simple dagger with a wooden plug-like handle, 

 through the same with a ring added, to the modern 

 bayonet and its tube and catch. 



Another series close by is of classical interest as illus- 

 trating the history of the Greek " kopis," the peculiar 

 sword which is to be seen in the hands of combatants 

 represented on Greek vases. It is a curved variety of the 



straight leaf-shaped bronze sword. It appears to have 

 been brought to Spain by the Romans. It is identical in 

 form with the koohrie of the Goorkas of Nepal, and the 

 Turkish, Albanian, and Persian yataghans are direct 

 descendants of this ancient weapon. 



Leaving the series of weapons, we may refer to the 

 collection illustrating the origin and development of boats 

 and ships. Concerning this question General Pitt Rivers 

 has published a valuable memoir, entitled " Early Modes 

 of Navigation," in the Jou>-nal of the Anthropological 

 Institute. He there divides the subject into five heads, 

 treating of (i) Solid trunks or dug-out canoes ; develop- 

 ing into (2) Vessels on which planks are laced or sewn 

 together, and these developing into such as are pinned 

 with plugs of wood, and ultimately nailed with iron or 

 copper ; (3) Bark canoes ; (4) Vessels of skins and wicker- 

 work ; (5) Rafts, developing into outrigger canoes, and 

 ultimately into vessels of broader beam, to which may be 

 added rudders, sails, and contrivances which gave rise to 

 parts of a more advanced description of vessel, such as 

 the oculus, aplustre, forecastle, and poop. 



The dug-out canoes probably originated from trunks of 

 trees accidentally burnt hollow in consequence of the 

 common practice of lighting fires at the bases of trees. 



Fig. 2.— I, Dagger with guard, used also as a plug bayonet : 2, the same, but longer and 

 still retaining its cross hand-guard; 4, Singhalese outrigger canoe, consisting of a dug-c 



bayonet-like; 3, biyc 

 se with planks sewn on 



Some Australian blacks used to paddle about on logs 

 shaped like canoes, but not hollowed out at all, sitting 

 merely astride with their feet resting on a rail of small I 

 sticks driven in. As an improvement to the dug-out, 

 wash-boards, or gunwale-pieces, narrow plank strips are 1 

 added all round at the edge, to keep the wash of the I 

 water out. These wash-boards are gr.adually increased 

 in height till, when the canoe is loaded, the dug-out trunk ' 

 is entirely below water, and acts merely as a float to sup- I 

 port the vessel of planks resting on it. In such a condition I 

 are the Cinghalese canoes which come alongside all the 

 steamers at Point de Galle and take passengers on shore 

 (Fig. 2, 4). There is a model of one of tl^se in the series, 

 and also another of a wide flat-bottomed boat, also from 

 Ceylon, in which two dug-out trunks arc fastened to the 

 margins of the bottom, one on each side, so as to form | 

 lateral floats and give the boat very great stability, this 

 primitive device being absolutely the same in principle 1 

 as that adopted in the structure of the Czar's new yacht 

 Livadia, lately described in N.\ture. In progress of 

 development, the dug-out portion of the canoe becomes 

 proportionately less important, its functions being usurped 

 by the superstructure of planks, and eventually the dug- 

 out disappears, or rather survives as the keel only, and 

 the ordinary boat built of planks is the result. The 'upper 



planks long remain laced together, and lashed to the dug- 

 out by means of rattans or sennet, the boats having no 

 ribs, but simply thawts as supports for the planks. In Fiji 

 the ribs seen in the interior of the canoes are not used to 

 bring the planks into shape, but are the last things 

 inserted, and are used for uniting the deck more firmly to 

 the body of the canoe. Wallace has described the boats 

 and boat-builders of the Ke Islands. Here, though the 

 ledges of the planks are pegged together by means of 

 wooden pegs, the planks arc still fastened to the ribs by 

 means of rattans. The ribs themselves are an addition, 

 after the boat is otherwise complete, and after the first 

 year the rattan-tied ribs are generally taken out and 

 replaced by new ones, fitted to the planks and nailed. 



General Pitt Rivers develops the outrigger canoe from 

 the raft. In all Africa and all .A-nierica there has never 

 existed an outrigger vessel of any kind. .All the canoes 

 are simple ; but on the coast of South America rafts are 

 used with sails elsewhere unknown in America. Those 

 termed balzas, used on the Guayaquil, in Ecuador, are 

 described by Ulloa. Some are seventy feet in length, 

 and twelve in breadth. They are made of light wooden 

 logs lashed together, and when they are sailing, planks 

 are pushed down into the water between the logs, and, 

 acting as centre-boards, enable the rafts to luff up or bear 



