The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile And Explorations of the Nile Sources by Sir Samuel W. Baker









 -  At length canoes were reported
to have arrived, and I was requested to inspect them. They were merely
single trees - Page 443
The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile And Explorations of the Nile Sources by Sir Samuel W. Baker - Page 443 of 662 - First - Home

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At Length Canoes Were Reported To Have Arrived, And I Was Requested To Inspect Them.

They were merely single trees neatly hollowed out, but very inferior in size to the large canoes on the Nile at M'rooli.

The largest boat was thirty-two feet long, but I selected for ourselves one of twenty-six feet, but wider and deeper.

Fortunately I had purchased at Khartoum an English screw auger 1 1/4 inch in diameter, and this tool I had brought with me, foreseeing some difficulties in boating arrangements. I now bored holes two feet apart in the gunwale of the canoe, and having prepared long elastic wands, I spanned them in arches across the boat and lashed them to the auger holes. This completed, I secured them by diagonal pieces, and concluded by thatching the framework with a thin coating of reeds to protect us from the sun; over the thatch I stretched ox-hides well drawn and lashed, so as to render our roof waterproof. This arrangement formed a tortoise-like protection that would be proof against sun and rain. I then arranged some logs of exceedingly light wood along the bottom of the canoe, and covered them with a thick bed of grass; this was covered with an Abyssinian tanned ox-hide, and arranged with Scotch plaids. The arrangements completed, afforded a cabin, perhaps not as luxurious as those of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's vessels, but both rain- and sun-proof, which was the great desideratum.

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