THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
103 
of their own, and do not like to tres- 
pass too often on the good-nature of their 
friends. Others are kept from the water 
by their parents or guardians, because 
boating is often dangerous— always so 
witli ignorance, carelessness or unsuitable 
vessels. 
The boat here illustrated (Fig. 1) is of 
Tery rude construction, but swift and 
safe. It can be copied and improved upon 
as to its appearance very cheaply with 
the materials at our command. It is not 
very roomy, but ships less water in the 
heaviest seaway than a craft of any other 
model. It is so buoyant that it is impos- 
sible to sink it, and, so long as it holds to- 
gether, cannot be upset. It is easily 
managed, and will carry thirty grown-up 
people at a pinch, well squeezed together. 
It looks something like a si^ider, but were 
it not that it takes up so much room on a 
ship's deck, and when out of water is so 
practically no better, if as good. (These 
double canoes, by the way, have no sort 
of resemblance to the genuine Madras 
catamaran [or " tied tree " in the Tamil 
Katta"i« 
"Maram " tree. 
language], which is made of three logs 
tied together, the longest in the middle, 
turned up at the fore-end, with a crew of 
one, dressed in an extinguisher-shaped 
cap, in which he carries letters to ships 
across the terrible surf of the Coromandel 
coast and any little trifle of tobacco or 
betel which he wants to keep dry, and 
not much besides. His paddle is always 
a piece of broken plank.) 
The materials of this Cingalese yacht 
are wood, bamboo, coir yarn and coir 
Fig. 
awkward to handle, could not be equalled 
as a lifeboat. It is the favorite fishing- 
boat of Ceylon, the Malabar or western 
coast of India, the Maldive and Lacca- 
dive Islands. It is not unlike, in many 
respects, the famous flying phahus of the 
Ladrone Islands, first described by Com- 
modore Anson, the circumnavigator, and 
the latest of our very expensive so-called 
*' catamarans " are indebted to these for 
their most important feature, and are 
rope, made from the fibrous husk of 
cocoanuts. There is not a nail about it. 
We should probably use cedar for the 
hull and outrigger, ash for the outrigger 
poles, and nails instead of coir yarn, and 
also a little paint or varnish. For the 
rigging (Fig. 2), coir rope would do as 
well as any substitute, and can easily be 
got here. Our sail would be of cotton, 
nicely made, instead of matting or patched 
gunnybags sewn together. 
