THE OOLOGIST. 



curvatures of the mould, to which they 

 were lightly tacked; they were also tied 

 to the end pieces at about their middle. 

 These were temporary guides to put- 

 ting in the ribs and were removed as 

 soon as these latter were put in. With- 

 out these guides it would have been 

 difficult to give uniform shape to the 

 boat. For ribs I used rattan switches 

 about three-eighths of an iuch thick. 

 These were soaked in water to make 

 them pliable and then fastened to the 

 keelson with copper nails, an awl be- 

 ing used to rnark holes for them in the 

 rattan. They were then bent over on 

 each side until they touch the guiding 

 strips, then fashioned up to the gun- 

 wales, cut off even with the tops of 

 these; notched to receive them and ul- 

 timately fastend to them with copper 

 tacks. Between the cross-boards the 

 ribs wei'e placed at intervals of about 

 three inches while toward the ends of 

 the frame they were put about six 

 inches apart. 



The frame- work being now complete 

 the canvas was next put on. This had 

 been previously oiled and was now laid 

 over the frame and fastened to the cen- 

 ter of the keelson throughout its entire 

 length with copper tacks. To accom- 

 plish this the frame was, of course, turn- 

 ed upside down. The canvas was lightly 

 tacked to the gunwales, then cut to fit 

 the end pieces and then tacked firmly 

 to them by lapping the edges over each 

 other and securing them by a double 

 row of copper tacks. Lastly, th ■ can- 

 vas was stretched tightly over the gun- 

 wales and securely tacked to their inside 

 surface- The outside of the canvas 

 then received a coat of white paint and 

 so soon as this was dry a small, straight- 

 grained oak keel, one inch square and 

 long enough to reach from stem-post to 

 stern-post was screwed to the center of 

 the keelson directly' over the row of 

 tacks driven into this bottom-board to 

 hold the canvas. The keel was cut so 

 as to taper to an edge at either end and 



thus made flush with the keelson in- 

 stead of terminating abruptly. After 

 the first coat of paint was dry another 

 containing an almost equal proportion 

 of varnish was put on, and afterwards, 

 a narrow stripe of light blue was pat 

 along the gunwales. 



The boat thus constructed proved to 

 be all I had desrecl. Upon trial I found 

 her to be perfectly water-tight, light, 

 steady, and easily handled with pad- 

 dle or oars — 1 had build her wide and 

 deep, however, with the intention of 

 using the latter. 



It now remained to supply my craft 

 with seat, rowlocks and oars. The seat 

 — which was movable — consisted of a 

 square frame about eight inches high, 

 surmounted by a cushion and made to 

 rest on the floor of the boat. The gun- 

 wales alone were not firm enough to 

 support rowlocks, and hence these 

 were secured to a strip of iron which 

 was first screwed to the keelson, then 

 bent up each side, bolted to the gun- 

 wales and made to project somewhat 

 over them. The locks themselves, con- 

 sisted of nothing more than short up- 

 right pins of three-fourths inch iron. 

 A large washer, well padded with lea- 

 ther, was slipped over the rods or pins 

 and made to encircle their bases. These 

 were for the oars to rest upon when in 

 the locks, so as to facilitate their easy 

 motion. 



The oars were light and short, and 

 provided with a longitudinal slit to re- 

 ceive the rowlocks, A slit just wide 

 enough to tit the locks easily, and just 

 long euough to permit of sufficient "dip" 

 was made, care being taken not to cut 

 away more wood than necessary and 

 thus weaken the oars. 



My boat was then finished and in a 

 couple of days I started on the cruise. 

 I might have put a deck of canvas fore 

 and aft on the boat to prevent her ship- 

 ping water in heavy seas, but found 

 this unnecessary on account of her am- 

 ple depth. 



