Fiji and the Fijians . which boxes or bales arestowed, and on a platform over it persons can lie or sit;a rack behind it receives guns and spears, and clubs orbaskets are hung upon it. The projecting ends of thecanoe are beautifully finished at the expense of immenselabour, and are sometimes thickly covered with whiteshells [Ovula oviformis). Any aperture inside not filledwith the sinnet is tightly caulked with cocoa-nut husk,and such as are next the water are flushed up with thewhite pitch of resin. The lines of the two canoes forming the drua differ considerably. Along bow, slackly strung, w
Fiji and the Fijians . which boxes or bales arestowed, and on a platform over it persons can lie or sit;a rack behind it receives guns and spears, and clubs orbaskets are hung upon it. The projecting ends of thecanoe are beautifully finished at the expense of immenselabour, and are sometimes thickly covered with whiteshells [Ovula oviformis). Any aperture inside not filledwith the sinnet is tightly caulked with cocoa-nut husk,and such as are next the water are flushed up with thewhite pitch of resin. The lines of the two canoes forming the drua differ considerably. Along bow, slackly strung, would represent the longitudinal section of theoutrigger, both ends of which finish in a circle less than the palm of thehand. The keel of the main canoe has not so much curve, and the endsdiffer. The small end is heart-shaped or circular, and several inchesover; the large end is like a great wedge, presenting its sharp perpen-dicular edge to cut the water. Such canoes seldom exceed one hundred feet in length. The fol-. SECTION OFJOINT. 58 FIJI AND THE FIJIANS. lowing are the dimensions of the largest canoe I know. Its name wasBusa i vanua, Perished inland, signifying that it would be impossibleto launch it:—Extreme length, 118 ft.; length of deck, 50 ft.; widthof deck, 24 ft.; length of mast, 68 ft.; length of yards, 90 ft. Themeasurement of another drua, the Lobi ki Tonga, is as follows :—Length, 99 ft. 3 in. ; length of deck, 46 ft. 4 in.; width of deck, 20 in.; height from keel to housetop, 14 ft. ; draught of water, 2 in.; length of mast, 62 ft. 3 in.; length of yards, 83 ft. Agood canoe in good condition makes very little water, and such as havebeen just described would safely convey a hundred persons, and severaltons of goods, over a thousand miles of ocean. A queer thing, calledulatoka—a raised platform on two logs—and a catamaran made ofbamboos, are used in the bays and rivers. The well built and excel-lently designed canoes of the Fijians were for a l
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Keywords: ., bookauthorwilliams, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookyear1859
