The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-24


4 use boats of some kind. Indeed, the manuac
ture of something that would float and support
passengers freight to have been of the
first forms that the Of construction took all the
world
This was natural 70! the first need that men had
find way carry their possessions TO any distance
The invention of the wheel that wonderful perfect cir
cuar lever, did not come until many ages after man had
emerged from semi-animal In his early days he
probably did possess any means OF transport
cePt that OF fiat hurdles, which he had to drag himself
for primitive man had not begun to domesticate ami
mails and teach them to do his work for them.
30 the water offered the most striking means OF trans
port; and primitive had observed how it float
ed heavy logs 1t was only step Tor INN to squat on
such log and let the current carry him to distance
Next he learned that he could guide the log with a
branch by polling Then he learned that, in the deep
water where the branch could not reach bottom, he
could push against the water Itself and so move his
rude craft.
1t was not long before he learned further that the
wind would blow him. and the step, therefore
TO hold something the air catch the breeze First
this thing probably a branch full of leaves In the
beginning, no doubt he held IT up with his hands until
some mechanical genius of those dim days discovered
that it could be thrust into a crevice in the log
Soon some other inventive man made the first real
sail by substituting piece OF skin Tor the branch
That was about the limit that the art of navigation
reached for long time; the science OF setting sails
that craft steer into the wind and sail almost
against II was NOT reached for many ages and even to-
day there are tribes that sail only with the wind
They know nothing about lacking or beating.
Students of ethnoogy can tell by glance at boat
what kind OF race built IT. Tor the boats oil the "orld
are absolutely typical of their makers
Thus, in the Arctic regions boats are made from
the skins of seals This boat IS typical OF regions with
out trees shrubs
As soon as one gets farther south where there is
any at all even though there be very little, the
boats made from it. The framework l. of willow or
cedar and though the craft still skn-covered the
skin IS that OF trees instead of beasts
While the Arctic boat is fine OF its kind It shows
improvement through the centuries but the bark
boats show steady improvement III model generation
after generation With wood to work the boat build
rrs Canada and the northern United States developed
their art wonderfully that all the science OF cIvlza
ton has been able produce boat that Is SO well
adapted American wilderness Is the bark canoe
establishments America turning out canoes to-day
by machinery that not different except IN MINOR
points from the canoe of the old roquois
Farther down south again, in the woodcss country
OF the United States of the Mississippi and IN the
country in the east where communication BY water
miserable affairs The boat OF the ancient denzenS along
the Missouri was poor OF thin sticks covered
with bison hide In the east OF the United States the
boats clumsy things roughly dug ont OF trees and
known 'dugouts.
On the Pacific Coast the dugout also used but
there shaped into mighty craft the tree beng
beautifully fashioned and the boats beng capable oil
making voyages of hundreds OF miles over the open
Through the Caribbean Sea and the Gull lighter and
less substantial form OF dugOut used It made up
in speed and buoyancy for lack of strength Speed and
buoyancy just what needed on the long SO"
rollers of the sub-troplcS. $500
In South America the barbarous Indians hidden away
prmeva forest did rise to the height OF dig
ging cavity into To this day the Amazon and
Orinoco Indians out RATS or even on mere hoaS
made OF light reeds roughly dashed together
Then the moment goes farther south, To the
vicinity of Cape Horn, he discovers the skin boat again