206 CANOES OP EOSSEL ISLAND DESCRIBED. 



lar to that already described, and on the other is a 

 small stag-e, level with the gunwale, six feet long-, 

 planked over, and projecting' four feet or thereabouts. 

 The mast is a standing one stepped into a board in 

 the bottom, — it is lashed to a stout transverse 

 pole, and is further supported by two fore and aft 

 stays. The halhards reeve through a hole in a pro- 

 jecting arm a foot long- at the masthead. But the 

 sail forms the most curious feature in the whole 

 affair.* It measures about fifteen feet in width by 



eight in depth and is made of rather fine matting' 



* The annexed illustration represents this kind of sail, — it was 

 not however taken from the canoe in question, but on a subse- 

 quent occasion, and at another part of the Louisiade Archipelago. 



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