ting of two curved poles, or
slender but tough spars, laid across the canoe at right-angles to its
length, and extending to the distance of twelve, fifteen, or even
twenty feet, where they join a small log of buoyant wood, about half
as long as the canoe, and lying parallel to it, with both its ends
turned up like the toe of a slipper, to prevent its dipping into the
waves. The inner ends of these transverse poles are securely bound by
thongs to the raised gunwales of the canoe. The out-rigger, which is
always kept to windward, acting by its weight at the end of so long a
lever, prevents the vessel from turning over by the pressure of the
sail; or, should the wind shift suddenly, so as to bring the sail
aback, the buoyancy of the floating log would prevent the canoe from
upsetting on that side by retaining the out-rigger horizontal. The
mast, which is very taunt, or lofty, supports a lug-sail of immense
size, and is stepped exactly in midships, that is, at the same
distance from both ends of the canoe. The yard, also, is slung
precisely in the middle; and while the tack of the sail is made fast
at one extremity of the hull, the opposite corner, or clew, to which
the sheet is attached, hauls aft to the other end. Shrouds extend from
the mast-head to the gunwale of the canoe; besides which, slender
backstays are carried to the extremity of the out-rigger; and these
ropes, by reason of their great spread, give such powerful support to
the mast, though loaded with a prodigious sail, that a very slender
spar is sufficient.

The method of working the sails of these canoes is as follows. They
proceed in one direction as far as may be deemed convenient, and then,
without going about, or turning completely round as we do, they merely
change the stern of the canoe into the head, by shifting the tack of
the sail over to leeward, and so converting it into the sheet--while
the other clew, being shifted up to windward, becomes the tack. As
soon as these changes have been made, away spins the little fairy bark
on her new course, but always keeping the same side, or that on which
the out-rigger is placed to windward. It will be easily understood
that the pressure of the sail has a tendency to lift the weight at the
extremity of the out-rigger above the surface of the water. In sailing
along, therefore, the log just skims the tops of the waves, but
scarcely ever buries itself in them, so that little or no interruption
to the velocity o