184 THE kL; ISLANDS. [chap. xxix. 



come to excel in what seems a very difficult art. Their 

 small canoes are beautifully formed, broad and low in the 

 centre, but rising at each end, where they terminate in 

 high-pointed beaks more or less carved, and ornamented 

 with a plume of feathers. They are not hollowed out of 

 a tree, but are regularly built of planks running from end 

 to end, and so accurately fitted that it is often difficult tci 

 find a place where a knife-blade can be inserted between 

 the joints. Tlie larger ones are from 20 to 30 tons 

 burthen, and are finished ready for sea without a nail or 

 particle of iron being used, and with no other tools than 

 axe, adze, and anger. These vessels are handsome to look 

 at, good sailers, and admirable sea-boats, and will make 

 long 'voyages with perfect safety, traversing the whoh' 

 -Archipelago from N"ew Guinea to Singapore in seas which, 

 as every one who has sailed much in them can testify, are 

 not so smooth and tempest free as word-painting travellers 

 love to represent them. 



The forests of Kd produce magnificent timber, tall, 

 straight, and durable, of various qualities, some of which 

 are said to be superior to the best Indian teak. To make 

 each pair of planks used in the construction of the larger 

 boats an entire tree is consumed. It is felled, often miles 

 away from the shore, cut across to the proper length, and 

 then hewn longitudinally into two equal portions. Each 

 of these forms a plank by cutting down with the axe to a 



