204 CANOES OP COEAL HAVEN DESCRIBED. 



the others paddle on the right or starboard side otily. 

 The man seated at the stern closes with his body 

 the opening- between the ends of the raised gunwale 

 and thus keeps out the spray or wash of the sea. 

 Still they require to bail frequently^ using for this 

 purpose the large shell of the Melo Ethiopica. In 

 calms and light airs these canoes of Coral Haven 

 may be overtaken without difficulty by a fast- 

 pulling ship's boat^ but on going to windward with 

 a moderate breeze and a little head sea they 

 appeared to have the advantage. The sails are 

 from twelve to fifteen feet in length and a yard 

 wide — made of coarse matting of the leaf of the 

 cocoa-nut tree stretched between two slender poles. 

 The mast is stepped with an outward inclination 

 into one of three or four holes in a narrow shifting 

 board in the bottom of the canoe^ and is secured near 

 the top to a slender stick of similar length made 

 fast to the outside part of the outrigger ; a second 

 pole is then erected stretching diagonally outwards 

 and secured to the outer one near its centre. Against 

 the framework thus formed the sails are stuck up 

 on end side by side to the number of three or four, 

 occasionally even five, and kept in their places by 

 long sticks placed transversely, their ends as well 

 as those of the mast being sharpened to serve as 

 skewers which in the first instance secure the sails. 

 While under sail either the bow or stern of the 

 canoe may be foremost, this being regulated by the 

 necessity of haAdng the outrigger on the weather 

 side, unless in a very light wind. From the sail 



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