284 



PI 11 AGU AS— CONSTRUCTION. 



1829. 



There is a track branching off from the main road to the 

 district of Dalcahue ; but on it, I believe, there is no cause- 

 way. 



As the only mode of supplying the town of San Carlos with 

 provisions is by water-carriage, it is frequently ill supplied 

 during winter, when N.W. winds prevent the arrival of the 

 piraguas. A southerly wind for two days, at that season, brings 

 from fifty to a hundred piraguas from Dalcahue and Castro, 

 laden with hams, potatoes, pigs, grain, fowls, calves, dried fish, 

 and charcoal, which are sold at a cheap rate, paying one-tenth 

 to the government. 



The arrival of so many piraguas at San Carlos creates no 

 slight bustle in the neighbourhood of the mole ; and a stranger 

 happening to arrive at the time would think it a place of con- 

 siderable trade ; the return, however, of the N.W. wind, with 

 all its attendant " vapours, clouds, and storms,'' very soon dis- 

 pels the illusion : the piraguas depart, one after another, and 

 in two days all is dull and monotonous. 



These piraguas, the boats used by the natives of the archi- 

 pelago of Childe, are all similar in form and material ; but 

 vary much in size, according to the voyage they have to per- 

 form. The largest are from thirty-five to forty feet long. The 

 head and stern are alike, and resemble those of a whale-boat, 

 being sharp at both ends. The transverse section is that of a 

 thick wedge, so that they have no bearings, and must be 

 extremely unsafe, (i?) particularly with so lofty a sail as they 

 hoist; and yet these vessels have made long, and even dangerous 

 passages, as is fully attested in Agiieros's account of the mis- 

 sionaries'* visit to the archipelago southward of Tres Montes. 

 These boats are literally sewn together, there is not a nail used 

 in their construction; every portion of the hull is of a vegetable 

 nature. The lower, or garboard strake, is sewn to the keel by 

 strips of the stem of a creeping plant, called Pepoi,* and the 

 seam is caulked with bark of the alerse, which, while under 



Cvj When moderately laden they are stiif under sail ; and are not such 

 very bad sea-boats, if properly managed. — R. F. 

 * Molina, i. 167. A species of* Dolichos.' 



