RAFTS. IMPLEMENTS. 349 



trunk, probably hollowed by fire. " They are about fourteen 

 feet long, and being very narrow, are fitted with an out- 

 rigger."* Further south they were nothing but a piece of 

 bark, tied together at the ends and kept open in the middle 

 by small bows of wood. The western tribes had no canoes,t 

 owing, according to King, J to the absence of large timber. 

 Instead of a boat they use a log of wood, on which they sit 

 astride, with a bit of bark in each hand as a paddle. Some 

 tribes fasten four or five mangrove stems together so as to 

 make a kind of very small float or raft. The tribe observed 

 by Dampier were even worse off in this respect ; they had 

 "no boats, canoes, or bark logs." Yet they dwelt on the 

 shore, lived principally on fish, and swam about from island 

 to island. The absence of canoes is very remarkable in a 

 people whose habits were so aquatic, and whose food was 

 derived almost entirely from the sea. 



Their implements are very simple. They have no know- 

 ledge of pottery, and carry water in a small vessel made 

 of bark. They are quite ignorant of warm water, which 

 strikes them with great amazement. || Some of them carry 

 "a small bag, about the size of a moderate cabbage-net, 

 which is made by laying threads loop within loop, some- 

 what in the manner of knitting used by our ladies to make 

 purses. This bag the man carries loose upon his back by 

 a small string which passes over his head ; it generally con- 

 tains a lump or two of paint and resin, some fishhooks and 

 lines, a shell or two, out of which their hooks are made, a 

 few points of darts, and their usual ornaments, which in- 

 cludes the whole worldly treasure of the richest man among 

 them." 



* Freycinet. Voyage autour du Monde, vol. ii., p. 705. 

 f Cook's First Voyage, vol. iii., p. 643. 

 J I.e. vol. i, pp. 38, 43, 49; vol. ii., pp. 66, 69. 



In his view, however, of Careening Bay, the country appears to be well 

 wooded. || D'Urville, vol. i., p. 461. 



