over and up through it, and this
need of speed, and of dry carrying power, which we find operative
throughout the history of the boat down to the present day, drove him to
devise other modes of flotation as well as to try to improve his first
invention.

The invention of the hollowed trunk, of the "dug-out" (monoxylon),
however it came about, whenever and wherever it came into comparison
with the raft, must have superseded the latter for some purposes, though
not by any means for all. It was superior to the raft in speed, and was,
to a certain extent, water-tight. On the other hand it was inferior in
carrying power and stability. But the two types once conceived had come
to stay, and to them severally, or to attempts to combine the useful
properties of both, may be traced all the varieties of vessel to which
the name of boat may be applied.

The development of the raft is admirably illustrated in the description,
given us by Homer in the Odyssey, of the construction by the hero
Ulysses of a vessel of the kind. Floating timber is cut down and
carefully shaped and planed with axe and adze, and the timbers are then
exactly fitted face to face and compacted with trenails and dowels, just
as the flat floor of a lump or lighter might be fashioned and fitted
nowadays. A platform is raised upon the floor and a bulwark of osiers
contrived to keep out the wash of the waves (cf. _infra_, Malay boats).
It seems as if the poet, who was intimately acquainted with the sea ways
of his time, intended to convey the idea of progress in construction, as
illustrated by the technical skill of his hero, and the use of the
various tools with which he supplies him.

On the other hand the dug-out had its limitations. The largest tree that
could be thrown and scooped out afforded but a narrow space for carrying
goods, and presented problems as to stability which must have been very
difficult to solve. The shaping of bow and stern, the bulging out of the
sides, the flattening of the bottom, the invention of a keel piece, the
attempt to raise the sides by building up with planks, all led on
towards the idea of constructing a boat properly so called, or perhaps
to the invention of the canoe, which in some ways may be regarded as the
intermediate stage between dug-out and boat.

Meanwhile the raft had undergone improvements such as those which Homer
indicates. It had arrived at a floor composed of timbers squared and
shaped. It had risen to a pl