Portable Boats. 



257 



are placed across the keel, and a ring of pliable wood around 

 the lip of the machine. The whole is covered with the 

 rough hide of an ox or a horse ; the seat is in the middle; 

 it carries but one person, or, if a second goes into it, he 

 stands behind the rower leaning on his shoulders. In 

 floating timber (lumbering) a rope is fixed to the float, and 

 the rower holds it in one hand, and with the other manages 

 the paddle. He keeps the float in deep water, and brings 

 it to shore when he will. In returning home, he carries 

 the machine on his shoulders, or on a horse. " The frame 

 is permanent. 



England, to whom the " hearts of oak " of old, and iron 

 ships to day, afford subject of just pride, would, perhaps, 

 hardly feel elated in the contemplation of what a majestic 

 fleet of bull-boats obeyed the orders of Queen Boadicea — 

 the infant navy of Great Britain — the portable boat, suited 

 to the wild and savage character of England at that early 

 period. 



Among our western Indians of the great plains, a sort 

 of coracle was in use, made from the hide of the buffalo, 

 strongly secured upon a firm frame. A boat, esseutially 

 the same as the coracle, is still in use in Thibet, and is de- 

 scribed by Abbe Hue, in his travels in Tartary, etc., where 

 he found it in use upon the river Bo-Thou. The interior 

 was formed of ox-hides, strongly sewn together, and formed 

 upon a frame-work of bamboo. It could be carried over- 

 land by its owner, but the frame was permanent. 



Nearly allied to the bullboat or coracle is the kayak, 

 kajak or kia of the Esquimaux — differently called in 

 different dialects — an ocean vessel of the Arctic zone ; 

 how ancient we can hardly tell. Like the coracle, this 

 boat is made so light that it is said " a man can carry 

 his kia on his shoulders from the house to the water." 

 The frame of the kia is permanent, and consists of whale- 

 bone joined with fragments of the drift-wood which the 



Trans. viii.~\ 33 



