470 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 



other owners can separate, identify, and drive off any of theirs which 

 have strayed. The herders may ski over thirty-five miles, returning 

 long after dark, in carrying out their tasks. The question of pasture 

 is the most urgent preoccupation ; in bad years, when the deep snow is 

 overlaid by a thick frozen crust, whole herds may die of starvation. 

 Railway trains also kill reindeer which stray on to the track, but compensa- 

 tion is paid by the company. 



In early February as many members of each family as can afford to go to 

 Jokkmokk by bus or train, which have superseded reindeer-drawn sleds, 

 gather for the annual market. The Lapps sell their reindeer skins and buy 

 cloth and various supplies for the coming year. Special services are held 

 in the Lapp language in the Lutheran Church. A meeting with the officials 

 also takes place, at which administrative details and proposed legislation 

 affecting the Lapps' welfare are freely discussed. The Lapps show an 

 increasing tendency to formulate and express their own opinions. These 

 do not always coincide with the official view, although several measures 

 have been adopted by a benevolent government to lessen the difficulties now 

 involved in living chiefly by reindeer-breeding, with much restricted pasture 

 lands. 



Illustrated by slides and a colour film taken by Mr. N. A. C. Croft. 



Mr. B. R. S. Megaw. — Manx house types (10,35). 



Mr. J. HoRNELL. — The polygenetic origins of plank-built boats (11. 10). 



In essays on the evolution of plank-built boats attention has never been 

 directed sufficiently to the technique of the constructional methods charac- 

 teristic of different regions and of the different types. The universal habit 

 has been to take the vessels in their completed state and then to apply 

 morphological methods to their study from this limited aspect. 



The conclusions so reached may be correct but they remain controversial 

 hypotheses that cannot be proved conclusively ; neither can they indicate 

 definitely whether the divergent forms were reached by a combination of 

 diffusion with local variation or whether they arose through independent 

 invention. 



Working on the principle now put forward that the only sound procedure 

 in this inquiry is to take into primary consideration the technique employed 

 by the builders of the various types, the conclusion is reached that there are 

 at least four types of planked boats which have had independent evolution. 

 These are : 



(a) The clinker or clench-built type, characterised by inserted frames. 



(b) The carvel-built type ; planked on a pre-formed framework. 



(c) The frameless river craft of ancient Egypt and the present-day naggr 

 of Nubia. 



{d) The junks of China, strengthened by transverse bulkheads in place of 

 frames. 



The evidence offered substantiates the view that the two in present-day 

 use in Europe have evolved from dugout canoes. It is equally clear that 

 they developed by different paths into forms superficially remarkably similar 

 and with the capacity to perform like duties. 



The other two types are just as clearly derived through two distinct lines 

 of evolution from raft forms of different material and construction ; the 

 Egyptian from the papyrus raft-canoe pointed at each end ; the Chinese 

 from one constructed of bamboos or of logs of timber. 



