104 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
The Cingalese yachtsman wears a bam- 
boo ring on liis head, which supports 
a small palmleaf umbrella. We should 
prefer a hat or cap, and also some more 
clothing than he usually gets along with. 
The keel is a log, pointed at both ends, 
somewhere about twenty feet long. A 
trench is cut in this along all its length, 
except at the ends, to receive the, plank- 
ing of the sides, which are built up, or 
rather tied together, three or four feet 
high, with a good shear or rise at stem 
or stern (which are both alike and sharp) ; 
but while one side is built straight, or 
nearly so, the other has the lines of an 
ordinary boat, leaving an opening in the 
middle of hardly more than two feet. 
From the latter or weather side is ex- 
tended, at a distance of eight to twelve 
feet, by bamboo poles, curved so as to 
keep them out of the water as much as 
possible, a pole three or four inches in di- 
ameter and about ten feet long, pointed at 
both ends, the whole being loosely but 
securely fastened together with a multi- 
tude of coir yarn and rope lashings, guys 
and stays. The flat side keeps the boat 
from drifting to leeward, and the weight 
of the outrigger keeps it from being cap- 
sized, while the displacement is so small 
and the model is so sharp that it is very 
speedy. The mast is of bamboo, in the 
middle, and the single halliard, fastened 
amidships at the weather gunwale, often 
does duty as a single shroud. The square 
sail has two ropes at the lower corners, 
one fast as a tack and the other flowing as 
a sheet, and is usually kept on the flat 
side of the boat, tacking being dispensed 
with in beating to windward, letting go 
the one rope used as a tack and hauling 
in the one used as a sheet, answering the 
same purpose. Eeefing is never thought 
of in any sort of weather much short of aj. 
cyclone, as, if the pressure of wind is; 
IFig. 3. 
heavy, scrambling out on the outrigger- 
gives a tremendous leverage to counteract 
it. The boat is steered with a paddle or 
oar (Fig. 3) from either end. The blades, 
are circular, about the size of a dinner- 
plate, and are often adorned with paint.. 
They are fastened to bamboos (Fig. 4) 
by coir yarn, 
passed through 
holes drilled in 
them. The pad- 
dles have a 
cross handle, 
(Fig. 5), while 
the oars, which 
are rarelv over 
Fig. 5. 
eight feet long, are supplied with a loop 
of coir rope, which is passed over a single 
thowl pin 
(Fig. 6), much 
resembling 
that used on 
the gondolas 
of Venice, 
which is usu- 
ally shipped 
and u n - 
shipped with the oar. They are simply 
let go whenever the oarsman wants to 
pull in a fish or fill his pipe without any 
danger of being lost, and are pulled noise- 
Fig. 6. 
