Portable Boats. 



259 



The two kias are placed near each other, and paddles are 

 laid from one to the other, so that for the time they are 

 formed into a double canoe, which cannot be upset." 

 * * * "An inflated seal's bladder is always attached 

 to the canoe. When the kia is not in use, it is taken out 

 of the water, and rested in an inverse position upon the 

 huts." 



The Esquimaux have also another kind of boat of skins, 

 which may be carried from place to place, but is so large 

 as to hardly come within the limits of the portable. This 

 is the woman's boat, called the oomiak, a large, clumsy, 

 scow-like, straight sided ship, of raw hide, which conveys 

 their baggage. A well made oomiak will carry a heavy 

 burden. One is mentioned " measuring twenty-five feet 

 in length, by eight in width, and three in depth," in which 

 more than twenty Esquimaux were conveyed. This boat 

 is occasionally fitted with a sail, and its general character 

 renders it far from portable. Like the kayak, its frame 

 is permanent, for indeed on those Arctic shores the material 

 for boat-frames is not easily procured. 



The canoes of the South sea islanders, being generally 

 intended for ocean voyages, and constructed of wood, lie 

 beyond the bounds of our subject. Their wonderful double 

 canoes, in which they venture far from land on the broad 

 Pacific, are not portable, and even the light, small forms 

 of canoes which they have, though they may be lifted and 

 carried, are hardly more of a portable boat than the surf 

 boats which the Sandwich islanders use in the exciting 

 pastime of their tropic coast. 



Nor are the bamboo rafts of the Chinese, boats in any 

 true sense of the word. Like the catamaran of the East 

 Indian coast, they are simply floats — excellent in their 

 way — the catamaran being more safe than the ship's boat 

 in the furious surf of Madras. This form of light raft is 

 also used on the west coast of South America. 



Among the Indians of South America we again meet 



