nothing from foreigners. On the authority of Mr. Knight, I can state that the natives of the north-west coast of Australia use rough log canoes, though they are, as he remarks, "of the most primitive description."[1]
- ↑ Western Australia: its History, Progress, Condition, and Prospects, by W. H. Knight, p. 106.
The natives of Tasmania had canoes, and they were described more than seventy years ago. They are referred to in another part of this work.
Mr. Taplin says that the natives around Lake Alexandrina make canoes exactly like those used in Victoria.
Oxley, in 1817, saw a bark canoe on a lake near Port Macquarie sufficiently large to hold nine men, and in form it resembled a boat.
Mitchell (1838) found that the natives could strip a tree of its bark, and form a canoe, and propel it through the water with astonishing case and swiftness.
Abel Tasman states that the proas of the natives of the north-west coast, which he saw, were made of the "bark of trees;" and Capt. Stokes gives an account of the rafts formed of poles of the palm-tree, and propelled by a very rude double-bladed paddle, which, he supposes, may have misled Tasman. The raft of unbarked timber, he thinks, may have been mistaken by Tasman for a bark canoe.
Mr. Martin gives the following account of the crafts used at Roebuck Bay:—"As this race of people have no rivers or deep-sea inlets to cross, the craft commonly used by the natives of the Glenelg district is of rare occurrence here. These consist of three or four mangrove sticks, about six or seven feet in length, pegged together with pine. The ends of all the sticks are carefully sharpened, and only such sticks as are naturally bent to a suitable shape appear to be chosen. About the middle of the canoe there is a pine pin projecting six or seven inches on either side, probably affording a similar support to the native mariner as a stirrup does to a horseman. Of course there is no attempt to make a bottom to the canoe, nor do the specimens seen show the least sign of ornamentation. There is a red-ochreous stain to be detected upon them here and there, but we account for them as having been communicated from the persons of the natives colored with wilgi (red-ochre)."
The Messrs. Jardine, in the narrative of their overland expedition from Rockhampton to Cape York, give a description of the canoes of the natives of the northern part of Australia. They say:—"The greatest ingenuity which the natives display is in the construction and balancing of their canoes. These are formed from the trunk of the cotton-tree (cochlospermum), hollowed out. The wood is soft and spongy, and becomes very light when dry. The canoes are sometimes more than fifty feet in length, and arc each capable of containing twelve or fifteen natives. The hull is balanced and steadied in the water by two outrigger poles, laid athwart, having a float of light wood fastened across them at each end, so that it is impossible for them to upset. A stage is formed on the canoe where the outriggers cross, on which is carried the fishing gear, and invariably, also, fire. The canoes are propelled by short paddles, or a sail of palm-leaf matting when the wind is fair."
Mr. J. A. Panton states, from information furnished by Mr. Halpin, of the Leigh Road, near Geelong, that the canoes of the Cape York natives are of superior build to any others in Australia. Some are forty-five feet in length and three feet in beam. They are cut from a solid log, and fitted with a sort of deck or framework, about twelve feet in length, and fixed amidships, overhanging the sides about three feet. This upper deck has an outer railing, and within it and the deck are kept the fishing-lines, spears, &c.
All the natives of Australia, and the natives of Tasmania, have been acquainted with rude modes of transport by water for a long period, and the time when the first bark canoe was made will never be known. The woods in Australia are hard, but eminently fitted for the construction of canoes; and they no doubt would have been used by the natives if the bark had not offered a substitute, at once easy to obtain and easy of manipulation. I have in my possession (fashioned by the natives) a large wooden tarnuk (water vessel), formed of the wood of the eucalyptus. It is fifteen inches in length, twelve inches in breadth, and six inches in depth. It is from three to four inches in thickness, and is very heavy; but it is buoyant on water. Any large sound gum-tree, if shaped and hollowed, would make an excellent canoe.
