Title: Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
Identifier: annualreportofbu17smit (find matches)
Year: 1895 (1890s)
Authors: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology
Subjects: Ethnology; Indians
Publisher: Washington : U. S. Govt. Print. Off.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
EFFICIENCY OF THE BALSA 219^ ness of the cords used in construction; in fact, the outer layers of canes are so ingeuionsly interlocked by the insertion of their butts into inter- stices that each bundle holds itself together with slight aid from the exterior cording, while even the bundles themselves are held in proper relative position by the secure terminal tying ratlier than by the inter- twined cording of the body of the craft. And the entire construction exemplifies the compartment principle to perfection; a slight injury may aflect but a single joint of one out of several thousand canes, while even a severe fall on sharp rocks seldom injures more than a few score canes, and these in a few joints only. The most objectionable feature of the balsa lies in the fact that it affords little protection from the wet. The water rises freely through the reed bundles to a height depending on the load, and not only the spray but the whitecaps and combers as well dash freely over the unprotected body of the craft; but this defect is of little consequence to the hardy and nearly nude navigators, or to their scanty and practically uninjurable freight.
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 28—Seri balsa as seen by Narratjansett party. The gracefulness and eflBciency of the balsa itself stand in strong cotitrast with the crude methods of projiulsion. According to Mashem, the craft is commonly propelled by either one or two women lying prone on the reeds and paddling either with bare hands or with large shells held in the hands; according to Hardy, the harpoon main shaft is used by turtle fishermen for paddling (and probably for poling, also); according to the Dewey jjicture (figure 28), the vessel is driven by a woman with a double-end paddle like that used in connection with the conventional canoe; while the expedition of 1895 found on Isla Tiburon four or five paddles rudely wrought from flotsam boards and barrel- staves, and i)artly hafted with rough sticks 3 or 4 feet long, but partly without handles and evidently designed to be grasped directly, like the shells of Mashem's descriptions. No trace of oars, rowlocks, sculls, rudders, or masts were found, and there is nothing to indicate the faintest notion of sails and sailing. On the whole there is no trace of well differentiated propelling devices—i. e., the craft is perfected only a.s a static device and not at all as a dynamic mechanism.

Note About Images