Page 305 |
Joseph Banks's Descriptions of Places |
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New South Wales (continued) in the middle by small bows of wood was the whole embarkation, which carried one or two, nay we once saw three people, who movd it along in shallow water by setting with long poles; and in deeper by padling with padles about 18 inches long, one of which they held in each hand. In the middle of these Canoes was generaly a small fire upon a heap of sea weed, for what purpose intended we did not learn except perhaps to give the fisherman an opportunity of Eating fish in perfection by broiling it the moment it is taken. To the Northward again their canoes tho exceeding bad were far superior to these. They were small but regularly hollowd out of the trunk of a tree and fitted with an outrigger to prevent them from oversetting; in these they had paddles large enough to require both hands to work them. Of this sort we saw only and had an opportunity of examining only one of them which might be about 10 or 11 feet long but was immensely narrow; the sides of the tree were left in their natural state untouch’d by tools but at each [end]
© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol. 2) *291, February 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-305.html |