It is sufficient that I should recall them by
name to the traveller's recollection; for if he has access to any of
these things he is probably either a sailor or engineer and knows all
about them, or he is in a land where mechanical appliances are
understood.
To raise Weights out of Water.--If the mass should lie below water, a
boat may be brought over it and sunk to its gunwales; then, after making
fast to it, the boat can be baled and the thing floated away. A raft
weighted with stones will serve the same purpose. In some cases a raft
may be built round the mass during low water; then the returning tide or
the next flush of the stream will float it away.
"Although from its bulk several men might be puzzled to lift a cow-fish
from the water when dead, yet one single Indian will stow the largest in
his montaria without assistance. The boat is sunk under the body, and
rising, the difficult feat is accomplished." (Edwards' 'Amazon.')
The huge blocks of marble quarried at Carrara are shipped in the small
vessels of the country, as follows:--at low water the vessel is buried
bodily in the sand, and a temporary railway laid down from the quarry to
withinside of it. Along this the blocks are conveyed, and, when deposited
in the vessel, the sand is dug away from under them, and they settle down
in its hold, and the ship floats away at the returning tide.
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