Page:Some Account of New Zealand.pdf/81

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Intimately connected with the arts which the natives of New Zealand employ to procure subsistence, is that of making their canoes, as their fish is chiefly taken in them.

Their canoes are formed of the trunk of a fir tree, hollowed out by the adze, and usually raised upon by a plank of a foot broad on each side: they are of various dimensions, from thirty to sixty feet in length, and upwards, and from two feet six inches to more than five feet broad; sharp at each extremity, and about three feet deep, including the plank before-mentioned. This plank is united to the body of the canoe by ligatures, and a quantity of rush or flax placed in the seam, so as to answer the purpose of caulking. Their war canoes are ornamented with carving and painting, and many of them are really very handsome. These will contain upwards of thirty warriors, and they sometimes lash two of them together. Ten or fifteen of these double