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w.e. roth : aust. canoes and rafts, 1908 

 W. E. Roth : Australian Canoes and Rafts, 1908.

Roth, W.E.:
Australian Canoes and Rafts.
Man- A Monthly Record of Anthropological Science
Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, London, 1908.
Volume 8, Number 88, pages 160-161.

 Internet Archive
http://archive.org/stream/man01irelgoog/man01irelgoog_djvu.txt


Introduction
Plate L is not available in the Internet Archive edition.

Also see:
1993 Kate Khan: Catalogue of the W. E. Roth Collection of Aboriginal Artefacts from North Queensland. [Volume 1]
Australian Museum


Page 160
AUSTRALIAN CANOES AND RAFTS.
Number 88.
By W. E. Roth, M.R.C.S., Local Correspondent of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

With Plate L.


Canoes are of two classes, according as they are made from bark or dug out from a tree-trunk.
On Plate L, Figs. 1 and 2, are shown two such bark canoes, the one from the Gulf Coast (Fig. 1), the other from the East Coast (Fig. 2).
The former is made of a single bark sheet, folded in its length, and sewn with cane at the extremities; the sides are kept apart by a very primitive form of stretcher, too much stretching being limited by intermediate ties.
A large conch shell, &c. is used as a bailer when the water splashes in, an event which is of very frequent occurrence, considering that these frail craft may be observed skimming along in practically all weathers.
Should the canoe turn turtle, the savages are so expert in their use that they can scramble in again after bailing, notwithstanding that a rough wind may be blowing.
The paddle used is a mangrove stock, the naturally flattened butt of which does duty for a blade.
On the East Coast the bark canoes are on the whole smaller, and can be built of one, rarely of two, sometimes of three, separate sheets carefully sewn and caulked ; this latter is effected by means of the "paper-tree" bark, which markedly swells when wetted. In the neighbourhood of the Tully River the paddles are small square pieces of wood, or bark, materials which are said to have replaced the two large pearl-shells which were employed before the days of European settlement.
The author has watched the whole process of manufacture of these craft, which requires a couple of days for completion.

"Dug-out" canoes are found on the extreme north of Cape York Peninsula and thence down the eastern coast-line to about the neighbourhood of Hinchinbrooke Island, one of the many beauty-spots of Northern Queensland.
There is little doubt that these "dug-outs" are of Papuan origin, a development of the wonderful vessels described in New Guinea. Indeed, certainly up to four years ago, the hulls were traded along three different routes from the Commonwealth's most northerly possession to various islands of the Torres Strait, whence some of them came into Queensland.
In the author's experience, the original trade price to the island middle-man was six pounds of tobacco and a tomahawk.
This does not, however, imply that the Queensland savages cannot make "dug-outs" for themselves, but a long time and considerable patience is required for burning and chipping one out.
The prow is usually more or less flattened to enable the flsherman to stand here and throw his harpoon at the turtle or fish that
he may be after.
In the more northern latitudes each "dug-out" is provided with two out-riggers or floats (Plate L, Fig. 3) - the New Guinea pattern - but further south there is only one (Plate L, Fig. 4).
With fine weather and strong paddles, these craft, though heavy and cumbersome, can travel 15 to 20 miles a day in the open sea.

The kind of raft found on the Wellesley Group of islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria is shown in Plate L, Fig. 5.
It is formed of numerous logs of "white mangrove" tied together at the butts as well as at the extremities, with the result that it is
much narrower forward than at the stern.
On top is placed some sea-weed, a sort of cushion for the voyager to sit upon.
With such frail craft the savages will not only visit island and island, but even cross over to the mainland, usually on the one course, making for a spot somewhere in the vicinity of Point Parker.
As might be expected, a raft like this, in spite of the paddle that directs it, will occasionally be carried out to sea by a sudden gale, when the traveller may be picked up by passing steamers ; but these are few and far between up here.
The author knows of three such cases where the venturesome native has been rescued, but, unable to render himself intelligible as to

Page 161

which of the many isIands, or group of islands, was his home, has had to bow to the inevitable and become a landsman without kith or kin.
In one of these three cases it was reported that a would-be extra-intelligent policeman, being determined upon discovering whence the survivor had originally come, showed the savage an atlas-map of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and could not understand why the latter was unable to point to his place of origin.

Log-rafts are also met along the eastern coast-line, on the Mulgrave, Russell, Barron, Tully, and other rivers, and are usually punted along with a pole.
They are made of from three to five or six odd lengths of light timbers tied together near their ends with native rope.
Three trunk-stems of the wild banana will support any ordinary savage.
According to whether the structure is intended for temporary or permanent use, so it is the less or more carefully trimmed and strung together ; in the latter case a fire may be often observed carried on a layer of clay.
Such a raft is used for comparatively short distances, and is very different from the variety found in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
The illustration (Plate L, Fig. 6) was taken on the Tully River ; the "white
?" on the individuals head and face is really the remnants of the white cockatoo feather-down stuck on for the sake of ornament at certain of the native ceremonies, one of which he had just come from attending.
W. E. ROTH.


Roth, W.E.:
Australian Canoes and Rafts.
Man- A Monthly Record of Anthropological Science
Volume 8, Number 88, pages 160-161.
Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, London, 1908.

Internet Archive
http://archive.org/stream/man01irelgoog/man01irelgoog_djvu.txt


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Geoff Cater (2014) : W. E. Roth : Australian Canoes and Rafts, 1908.
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1908_Roth_Canoes_Rafts_Aust.html