Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/28

 buoyancy of the branch or trunk of a tree would suggest the means of carrying him across unfordable rivers; and there is no doubt that, long anterior to the era assigned to Noah, the first step in the art of ship-building was taken in hollowing out the log by fire, or by some rude instrument, in order to render more secure the position of any adventurous navigator. A pole or paddle might be used to propel the rude barque, but probably ages passed away without any improvement in this respect. In fact, to this day, some of the inhabitants of the Polynesian Islands have not made any greater progress in the construction of their primitive vessels; and the canoes in the Pacific, and in various parts of South America, are still formed on what is evidently the most ancient model of vessels.

While the hollow log was made to answer the purpose of a boat, a number of logs placed together would suggest the idea of a raft, for the carrying of a number of persons or animals, or of any article of greater weight than could be conveyed in a canoe across a lake or river. These, by degrees, would be improved in form, in strength, or in capacity, to suit the wants of man or the navigation for which they were intended. The ingenuity of even the rudest savages would lead them, it may be easily supposed, in course of time, to construct their raft so as to make it more easy of propulsion, and thus give to it the first form of a ship.

But it is doubtful if any progress were made in ship-building beyond the mere raft, anterior to the