ion of a
good type of boat. "Small displacement, hollow lines, V-shaped sections,
shallow draught and lack of beam" result in want of stability and
weatherliness. But it is among them that the ancient process of dug-out
building still survives and flourishes, preserving all the primitive and
ingenious methods of hollowing the tree trunk, of forcing its sides
outwards, and in many cases building them up with added planks, so that
from the dug-out a regular boat is formed, with increased though limited
carrying power, increased though still hardly sufficient stability.

To ensure this last very necessary quality many devices and contrivances
are resorted to.

In some cases (just as Ulysses is described as doing by Homer, _Od_. v.
256) the boatman fastens bundles of reeds or of bamboos all along the
sides of his boat. These being very buoyant not only act as a defence
against the wash of the waves, but are sufficient to keep the boat
afloat in any sea.

But the most characteristic device is the outrigger, a piece of floating
wood sharpened at both ends, which is fixed parallel to the longer axis
of the boat, at a distance of two or three beams, by two or more poles
laid at right angles to it. This, while not interfering materially with
the speed of the boat, acts as a counterpoise to any pressure on it
which would tend, owing to its lack of stability, to upset it, and makes
it possible for the long narrow dug-out to face even the open sea. It is
remarkable that this invention, which must have been seen by the
Egyptians and Phoenicians in very early times, was not introduced by
them into the Mediterranean. Possibly this was owing to the lack of
large timber suitable for dug-outs, and the consequent evolution by them
of boat from raft, with sufficient beam to rely upon for stability.

On the other hand in the boats of India the influence of Egyptian and
Arab types of build is apparent, and the dinghy of the Hugli is cited
as being in form strangely like the ancient Egyptian model still
preserved in the Ghizeh museum. Coming westward the dominant type of
build is that of the Arab _dhow_, the boat class of which has all the
characteristics of the larger vessel developed from it, plenty of beam,
overhanging stem and transom stern. The planking of the shell over the
wooden frame has a double thickness which conduces to dryness and
durability in the craft.

On the Nile it is interesting to find the _naggar_ preserving, in it