314 
THE CANOE. 
stretchers are placed across each end and in the 
middle, to prevent the bark from contracting or 
curling up with exposure to the air. A large canoe 
will hold seven or eight people easily ; it is often 
twenty feet long. The following is a description of 
an ordinary one for fishing: — length fifteen feet, 
width three feet, depth eight inches, formed out of a 
single sheet of bark, with one end a little narrower 
than the other and pointing upwards. This end is 
paddled first ; the bottom is nearly flat, and the 
canoe is so firm, that a person can take hold of one 
side, and climb into it from the water without up- 
setting it. It is paddled along with the long pine- 
spear moo-aroo, described as being used in fishing 
at night by firelight. In propelling it the native 
stands near the centre, pushing his moo-aroo against 
the water, first on one side and then on the other ; 
in shallow water one end of the moo-aroo is placed 
on the bottom, and the canoe so pushed along. The 
natives are well acquainted with the use of fire, for 
hardening the points of their weapons or softening 
the wood to enable them to bend them. In the former 
case, the point is charred in the fire, and scraped with 
a shell or flint to the precise shape required ; in the 
latter, their spears, and other similar weapons, are 
placed upon hot ashes, and bent into form by pressure. 
It is a common practice among many of the tribes 
to grease their weapons and implements with human 
fat, taken from the omentum, either of enemies who 
