Recognized HTML document

i o6   Art of Travel.

round the stick, the line of action of the tow-rope on the boat's axis may be properly adjusted. When all is right the boat ought to steer herself.

When Caught by a Gale recollect that a boat will lie-to and live through almost any weather, if you can make a bundle of a few spare spars, oars, &c., and secure them to the boat's head, so as to float in front of and across the bow. They will act very sensibly as a breakwater, and will always keep the boat's head towards the wind. Kroomen rig out three oars in a triangle, lash the boat's sail to it, throw overboard, after making fast, and pay out as much line as they can muster. By making a canvas half-deck to an open boat, you much increase its safety in broken water; and if it be made to lace down the centre, it can be rolled up on the gunwale, and be out of the way in fine weather.

In Floating down a Stream when the wind blows right against you (and on rivers the wind nearly always blows right up or right down), a plan generally employed is to cut large branches, to make them fast to the front of the boat, weight them that they may sink low in the water, and throw them overboard. The force of the stream acting on these branches will more than counterbalance that of the wind upon the boat. For want of branches, a kind of water-sail is sometimes made of canvas.

Steering in the Dark.-In dark nights, when on a river running through pine forests, the mid stream can be kept by occasionally striking the water sharply with the blade of the oar, and listening to the echoes. They should reach the ear simultaneously, or nearly so, from either bank. On the same

)F - www.fastio.com