■WATEBING-CEEEK ON SOUTH-EAST ISLAND. 207 



stretched between two yards and rounded at the sides. 

 The sail when not in use is rolled up and laid along 

 the platform — when hoisted it stretches obhquely 

 upwards across the mast, confined by the stays, 

 with the lower and foremost comer resting- on the 

 stage and the tack secured to the foot of the mast. 

 Both ends being- ahke, the mast central, and the 

 sail larg'e and manageable, a canoe of this descrip- 

 tion is well adapted for working to windward. 

 Tacking is simply and expeditiously performed by 

 letting go the tack, hauling upon the sheet, and 

 converting one into the other. The large steering 

 paddles are eight or nine feet long, with an oblong 

 rounded blade of half that length. 



June 26th. — Yesterday afternoon the Eattlesnake 

 was removed to the neighbourhood of the proposed 

 watering-place on South-east Island, and anchored 

 in seventeen fathoms, mud, a mile off shore. Soon 

 after daylight I accompanied Captain Stanley and 

 a party in two boats to ascend the neighbouring 

 creek and determine whether a practicable watering- 

 place existed there. For several hundred yards 

 above the entrance we found the channel preserving 

 a nearly uniform width of about fifteen yards, with 

 low muddy shores covered with mangroves, some 

 of which attained the unusual dimensions of 60 to 

 80 feet in height, with a circumference at the base 

 of 6 to 8 feet. To this succeeded during our 

 upward progress a low bank of red clay backed by 

 rising ground and tangled brush, Avith very large 



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