g a sheltered coast, for a distance not
exceeding that of the coast-line between Gibraltar and Hamburg. An
instructive example of primitive navigation, under analogous
circumstances, has been communicated to me, from personal observation, by
Commander Barber of the United States Navy.

Native traders, who navigate north and south in small crafts along the
coast between Ceylon and Karashee, still use, at the present day, an
extremely primitive method of estimating latitude, which is entirely based
upon observations of the pole-star. Their contrivance consists of a piece
of wood four inches square, through which a hole is bored and a piece of
cord, with knots at intervals, is passed. The square is held at arm's
length and the end of the cord is held to the point of the navigator's
nose in a horizontal line, the height being so adjusted that the pole-star
is observed in contact with the upper edge of the piece of wood. There are
as many knots in the cords as there are ports habitually visited, and
according to the length of the cord required for the observation of
Polaris in the said position, the mariner knows to which port he is
opposite.

According to Sir Clements B. Markham,(31) the original inhabitants of the
Peruvian coast fished in boats made of inflated sealskins. It is well
known that the coast-tribes of Mexico and Central America employed boats
of various kinds and some of great size. The Mexican tradition relates
that the culture hero Quetzalcoatl departed in a craft he had constructed
and which is designated as a coatlapechtli=coa=coatl=serpent or twin,
tlapechtli=raft. It is open to conjecture whether this construction, "in
which he sat himself as in a boat," may be regarded as a sort of double or
twin raft, or a boat made of serpent or seal (?) skin. In order to form
any opinion, the name for seal in the Nahuatl and other languages spoken
by the coast tribes should first be ascertained and compared with the
native names for serpent.

The Maya colonists who founded the colony on the Mexican coast, and are
known as the Huaxtecans, are described as having transported themselves
thither by boats from Yucatan. In the native Codices and in the sculptured
bas-relief at Chichen-Itza, there are, moreover, illustrations of
navigation by boats. As dependent upon Polaris as their East Indian
colleagues of to-day, it is but natural that the ancient Mexican traders
by land or sea expressed their gratitude by offerings to