File:Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1895) (14579650088).jpg

Identifier: annualreportofbu117smit (find matches)
Title: Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
Year: 1895 (1890s)
Authors: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology
Subjects: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology Ethnology Indians
Publisher: Washington : U. S. Govt. Print. Off.
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Kahle/Austin Foundation and Omidyar Network

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ertion of their butts intoiuter-stices that each bundle holds itself together with slight aid from theexterior cording, while even the bundles themselves are held in properrelative position by the secure terminal tying rather than by the inter-twined cording of the body of the craft. And the entire constructionexemplifies the compartment principle to perfection; a slight injurymay aftect but a single Joint of one out of several thousand canes, whileeven a severe fall on sharp rocks seldom injures more than a few scorecanes, and these in a few joints only. The most objectionable featureof the balsa lies in tiie fact that it affords little protection from the wet.The water rises fieely through the reed bundles to a height dependingon the load, and not only the spray but the whitecaps and combersas well dash freely over the unprotected body of the craft; but thisdefect is of little consequence to the hardy and nearly nude navigators,or to their scanty and practically uninjurable freight.
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Fig. 28—Seri balsa aa seen by Narragansett party. The gracefulness and efficiency of the balsa itself stand in strongcoitrast with the crude methods of propulsion. According to Mashem,the craft is commonly pro))elled by either one or two women lyingprone on the reeds and paddling either with bare hands or with largeshells held in the hands; according to Hardy, the harpoon main shaftis used by turtle fishermen for paddling (and probably for poling, also);according to the Dewey picture (figure 28), the vessel is driven by awonum with a double-end paddle like that used in connection with theconventional canoe; while the expedition of 1895 found on Isla Tiburonfour or five paddles rudely wrought from flotsam boards and barrel-staves, and i)artly hafted with rough sticks 3 or -t feet long, but partlywithout handles and evidently designed to be grasped directly, like theshells of Mashems descriptions. No trace of oars, rowlocks, sculls,rudders, or masts were found, and there is nothing to

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