Rafts and Boats.
93
Log Canoes are made by hollowing out a long tree by axe and by fire, and fastening an outrigger to one side of it, to give steadiness in the water. Recollect Robinson Crusoe's difficulty in launching his canoe after he had made it. (See " Rafts of Wood.") It is not a difficult, though a tedious operation, to burn out hollows in wood ; the fire is confined by wet earth, that it may not extend too far to either side, and the charred matter is from time to time scraped away, and fresh fire raked back on the newly-exposed surface. A lazy savage will be months in making a single canoe in this way.
Canoe of Three Planks.-A swift, safe, and graceful little boat, with a sharp stem and stern, and with a bottom that curves upwards at both ends, can be made out of three planks. The sketch, fig. 1, is a foreshortened view of the boat, and the diagram, fig. 2, shows the shape of the planks from which it is made. The thwart or seat shown in fig. 1 is important in giving the proper inclination to the sides of the boat, for, without it, they would tend to collapse ; and the bottom would be less curved at either end. If the reader will take the trouble to trace fig. 2 on a stout card, to cut it out in a single
Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.
piece (cutting only half through the cardboard, where the planks touch), and to fasten it into shape with pieces of gummed paper, he will understand the architecture of the
