Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 1.djvu/98

 44 sVRVEY OF THE R?ROPCAL and buoyant enough to support the weight of two people. The end is rudely omamented, and is attached to the extremity by the same contrivance as the joints of the main stem, only that the two are not brought close together. The joint is contrived by driving three pegs into the end of the log, and by bending them, they are made to enter opposite holes in the part that is to be joined on; and as the pegs cross and bend against each other, they form a sort of elastic connexion, which strongly retains the two together. When it is used, they sit astride and move it along by pad- dling with their hands, keeping their feet UlOn the end of the log, by which they probably guido its course. Such are the shifts to which the ab- senco of larger timber has reduced these simple savages: they shew that man is naturally a navi- gating animal; and this floating log, which be called a nari.vdodpe2z, is, I should sup- pose, the extreme case of the poverty of savage beat-building all round the world. The island is composed of a rocky basis, co. vered by a thin layer of sandy soil. On the summit of the bluff east end of the island was observed one of those immense nests that were seen at King George the Third's Sound, the base of which measured seven feet in diameter. Whilst examining the nest, some natives were Disitid by Goog[c

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