Shola Reed Swimming-Floats, Model
date: label: Collection Date
content: 1883
name: label: Collector
content: Francis Day
label: Donor Name
content: Accession Number Unknown
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "These floats are typically used by floating fisherman of this area. Treated at Conservation 5/2/73. Refer Collins' Ms. p. 1260. U.S.N.M. Bull. 127, p. 272-3."
label: Notes
content: An intramural transfer of specimens document filed in accession file 36053 dated February 18, 1965 lists this float as part of a group of boats transferred from the Division of Transportation to the Division of Ethnology, Department of Anthropology.
label: Notes
content: From U.S. National Museum Bulletin # 127, p. 272-273: "Shola swimming float. Swimming floats are used by the fishermen on the River Sind, in India, to support them in the water while they drift with the current and operate a large triangular scoop net called a palla-met. Two of these floats are used by a fisherman. When going on a fishing trip the fisherman enters the water, arranges one of these floats on each side, and then pushes out into midstream. When a fish is caught it is secured by a string that hangs from his waist. After drifting to the end of his reach he lands, shoulders his floats, his net, and his catch, and tramps back to sell his fish, unless he disposes of them to a "pally-chatty" - a boat in which natives go out to fish or to purchase the catch of others. This is among the most primitive {sic] devices for floatation known in the world. A large bundle of stems of shola, a light pith-like plant, is securely bound together with twine, and to this is attached by a string a small bundle of the same material. The purpose of this arrangement is that, when the connecting string is passed beneath the arm of a fisherman and the small bundle of shola is placed in front of the armpit, the larger bundle is held on the shoulder of the swimmer; thus with one of these on each side he is supported without any personal exertion. Dimensions of float. - Large bundle, 20 inches long, 6 inches diameter; small bundle, 7 1/2 inches long, 3 inches diameter. Gift of Surg. Gen. Francis Day."
label: Notes
content: Collins Ms. identifies "shola" as Aeschynomene aspera Linn, another name for which is Sola. The entry on this plant in www.eFloras.org, in the Flora of Pakistan section http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=220000272 , retrieved 4-29-2013, says about it: "Soft spongy stems known as Sola are used in hats, floats and are also used as lint."
label: Notes
content: Records indicate this was a gift in 1883 from Surgeon General Francis Day through G. Brown Goode. It was apparently collected for and exhibited at the International Fisheries Exhibition in London of 1883. P. 87, in the Smithsonian Annual Report for the year 1884, part 2, reports that a collection of boats and boat models were presented to the museum by Surgeon-General Francis Day, F.L.S., Late inspector of Her Majesty's fisheries in India, and commissioner from India to the International Fisheries Exhibition at London, 1883. See also p. 149, # 230 in International Fisheries Exhibition. 1883. Great International Fisheries Exhibition, 1883: official catalogue. London: W. Clowes; http://books.google.com/books?id=EVk9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA149#v=onepage&q&f=false .
label: Record Last Modified
content: 12 Apr 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Puri, Puri District, Orissa (Odisha), India, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Indian
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 000000
label: USNM Number
content: E160263-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Float