CANOES AND PADDLES. 
341 
six to eight inches in width, according to the size 
and length of the canoe. These strips meet and 
close over the top at both stem and stern, and 
shoot off much water that would otherwise enter 
the canoe. All the canoes of these islands are 
remarkably strong and neatly made, and, though 
not so large as those of New Zealand, the Society 
Islands, or some of the other islands to the south¬ 
ward, are certainly better made, and would pro¬ 
bably paddle or sail faster than any of them. One 
man, we have heard, will sometimes paddle a 
single canoe faster than a good boat’s crew could 
row a whale-boat. Their tackling is simple and 
convenient; the mast generally has a notch cut 
at the lower end, and is placed on one of the 
cross pieces to which it is tied; the sails they now 
use are made of mats, and cut in imitation of the 
sprit-sails of foreign boats, which, they say, they 
find much better than the kind of sail they had 
when first visited by foreigners. When sailing 
with a fresh breeze, the ropes from the lower 
corners of the sails are always loosened, and held 
in the hands of persons whose only business it is 
to keep them properly trimmed. Their paddles, 
which are large and strong, are generally four or 
five feet long, have an oval-shaped blade and 
round handle, and are made of the same hard and 
heavy wood employed in building their canoes. 
They are not handsome, and their weight must 
make paddling very laborious. Neither the canoes 
nor paddies of the Sandwich Islanders are carved 
like those of many islands in the Pacific. Their 
canoes are, nevertheless, remarkably neat, and 
sometimes handsome. 
After sailing pleasantly for several hours, we 
approached Laupahoehoe : we had proceeded up- 
