Livingstone on the rivers
of South Africa. They stand a wonderful amount of wear and tear; but, as
boats, they are inferior to native canoes, as they are very slow in the
water: it is, indeed, impossible to paddle them against a moderate
head-wind. For the general purposes of travellers, I should be inclined
to recommend as small a macintosh-boat as can be constructed; just
sufficient for one, or at the most for two, persons; such as the cloaks
that are made inflatable, and convertible into boats. A traveller wants a
portable boat, chiefly as means to cross over to a village for help, or
to carry his valuables across a river, while the heavy things are risked
at a ford; or for shooting, fishing, or surveying. Now a very small boat,
weighing about ten pounds, would do as well for all these purposes as a
large one, and would be far more portable.
It is perfectly easy to get into a macintosh-boat, after having been
capsized out of it into deep water.
Basket-boat with Canvas Sides.--FitzRoy gives an account of a party of
his sailors, whose boat had been stolen while they were encamped, putting
out to sea in a large basket, woven with such boughs as were at hand, and
covered with their canvas tent--the inside of which they had puddled with
clay, to keep the water from oozing through too fast. They were eighteen
hours afloat in this crazy craft.
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