284 PIRAGUAS—CONSTRUCTION. 1829. 
There is a track branching off from the main road to the 
district of Dalcahue; but on it, I believe, there is no cause- 
way. 
As the only mode of supplying the town of San Carlos with 
provisions is by water-carriage, it is frequently ill supplied 
during winter, when N.W. winds prevent the arrival of the 
piraguas. A southerly wind for two days, at that season, brings 
from fifty to a hundred piraguas from Dalcahue and Castro, 
laden with hams, potatoes, pigs, grain, fowls, calves, dried fish, 
and charcoal, which are sold at a cheap rate, paying one-tenth 
to the government. 
The arrival of so many piraguas at San Carlos creates no 
slight bustle in the neighbourhood of the mole ; and a stranger 
happening to arrive at the time would think it a place of con- 
siderable trade ; the return, however, of the N.W. wind, with 
all its attendant “ vapours, clouds, and storms,” very soon dis- 
pels the illusion: the piraguas depart, one after another, and 
in two days all is dull and monotonous. 
These piraguas, the boats used by the natives of the archi- 
pelago of Childe, are all similar in form and material ; but 
vary much in size, according to the voyage they have to per- 
form. The largest are from thirty-five to forty feet long. The 
head and stern are alike, and resemble those of a whale-boat, 
being sharp at both ends. The transverse section is that of a 
thick wedge, so that they have no bearings, and must be 
extremely unsafe,(v) particularly with so lofty a sail as they 
hoist; and yet these vessels have made long, and even dangerous 
passages, as is fully attested in Agueros’s account of the mis- 
sionaries’ visit to the archipelago southward of Tres Montes. 
These boats are literally sewn together, there is not a nail used 
in their construction; every portion of the hull is of a vegetable 
nature. The lower, or garboard strake, is sewn to the keel by 
strips of the stem of a creeping plant, called Pepoi,* and the 
seam is caulked with bark of the alerse, which, while under 
(uv) When moderately laden they are stiff under sail; and are not such 
very bad sea-boats, if properly managed.—R. F. 
* Molina, i. 167. A species of ‘ Dolichos.’ 
