use. The paddles
vary slightly in form but are usually about four feet in length, with a
slender handle and a pointed lance-shaped blade. The number of men able
to use the paddles is regulated in each canoe by that of supporting
outrigger poles, the end of each of which, in conjunction with one of the
knees supporting the gunwale, serves as a seat. One sitter at each end,
being clear of the outrigger, is able to use his paddle on either side as
requisite in steering, but the others paddle on the right or starboard
side only. The man seated at the stern closes with his body the opening
between the ends of the raised gunwale and thus keeps out the spray or
wash of the sea. Still they require to bail frequently, using for this
purpose the large shell of the Melo ethiopica. In calms and light airs
these canoes of Coral Haven may be overtaken without difficulty by a
fast-pulling ship's boat, but on going to windward with a moderate breeze
and a little head-sea they appeared to have the advantage. The sails are
from twelve to fifteen feet in length and a yard wide--made of coarse
matting of the leaf of the coconut-tree stretched between two slender
poles. The mast is stepped with an outward inclination into one of three
or four holes in a narrow shifting board in the bottom of the canoe, and
is secured near the top to a slender stick of similar length made fast to
the outside part of the outrigger; a second pole is then erected
stretching diagonally outwards and secured to the outer one near its
centre. Against the framework thus formed the sails are stuck up on end
side by side to the number of three or four, occasionally even five, and
kept in their places by long sticks placed transversely, their ends as
well as those of the mast being sharpened to serve as skewers which in
the first instance secure the sails. While under sail either the bow or
stern of the canoe may be foremost, this being regulated by the necessity
of having the outrigger on the weather side, unless in a very light wind.
From the sail being placed so far forward these canoes do not lay up
close to the wind, but when going free considerable speed may be
obtained.

CANOES OF ROSSEL ISLAND DESCRIBED.

Among the canoes which visited the ship one was of a quite different
construction from the rest and resembled some of those which we had seen
while passing along the northern side of Rossel Island. It contained
seven men, and came from the eastward--probably