According to the kind of bark used, the sheet is either put over the fire and turned inside out, or employed as cut, the ends being tied; or if the bark be thick—so that the ends cannot be tied—the stem and stern are stopped with clay or mud. Mr. J. A. Panton says that the natives of the south coast invariably construct their canoes of thick bark, which does not admit of the ends being tied together. The water is kept out by walls of clay at each end.—(Fig. 237.)
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| FIG. 237. |
Mr. Bulmer has sent me a bark canoe from Lake Tyers, which is of the following figure—(Fig. 238):—
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| FIG. 237. |
Mr. Bulmer says that the canoe—Gri—is propelled by a stick named Jen-dook. The person propelling the vessel holds the stick by the middle and plies it on either side. In crossing deep water the natives lay aside the jen-dook, and sit down, and the vessel is then propelled by two scoop-shaped pieces of bark (Wrail), about six inches in length. They are more convenient than the jen-dook, more easily used, and serve for baling the boat as well as for propelling.
It will be observed that the Gippsland canoe is of a different pattern to that first figured. The ends are fastened together with a stout rope made of a vegetable fibre; and there are stretchers to prevent the collapse of the sides. In such a canoe the use of clay is not necessary if the seams or cracks have been previously caulked with gum.
Mr. Alfred Howitt, who has been under the necessity of making and using bark canoes, has supplied the following information. He says:—
"I am acquainted with two kinds of bark canoe. One kind which is folded together, and tied up at the ends to form the stem and stern, and another kind, which is not tied at the ends, but is usually completed by a lump of mud at one or other end, as may be required by the shape of the canoe. The first kind of canoe is used, I think, alone by the Gippsland blacks. At least I do not remember having seen any other; nor can I at this time recall seeing any tree from which the curved sheet of bark required for the second kind had been stripped. As illustrative of the first kind of canoe, I may describe one which the blackfellow 'Toolabar' and I made a few years ago to cross the Snowy River during a flood. A stringybark-tree was chosen, having a straight bole, free from branches or knots, and about [four] feet in diameter at the butt. It was ascertained by taking a chip of bark out with the tomahawk that it would strip freely. Two straight saplings about ten feet in length were cut, trimmed
