, while about 300 yards
distant, to show that although in fancied security they were still within
reach. The splash of the first bullet caused them to paddle off in great
haste, and, when they again stopped, a second shot, striking the water
beyond the canoes, sent them off to the shore at their utmost speed.

CANOES OF CORAL HAVEN DESCRIBED.

With a single exception, to be afterwards noticed, the canoes seen by us
in Coral Haven are of the following description. The usual length is
about twenty-five feet, and one of this size carries from seven to ten
people. The body is formed by the hollowed-out trunk of a tree, tapering
and rising at each end, short and rounded behind, but in front run out
into a long beak. A stout plank on each side raises the canoe a foot,
forming a gunwale secured by knees, the seam at the junction being payed
over with a black pitch-like substance. This gunwale is open at the
stern, the ends not being connected, but the bow is closed by a raised
end-board fancifully carved and painted in front of which a crest-like
wooden ornament fits into a groove running along the beak. This
figurehead, called tabura, is elaborately cut into various devices,
painted red and white, and decorated with white egg-shells and feathers
of the cassowary and bird of paradise. The bow and stern also are more or
less profusely ornamented with these shells, which besides are strung
about other parts of the canoe, usually in pairs. An outrigger extends
along nearly the whole length of the left or port side of the canoe. In
its construction there are employed from six to eight poles, two inches
in diameter, which rest against one side of the body of the canoe and are
secured there, then passing out through the opposite side about five
feet, inclining slightly upwards at the same time, are connected at the
ends by lashing to a long stout pole completing the strong framework
required for the support of the float. This last is a long and narrow log
of a soft and very light wood (probably a cotton tree) rising a little
and pointed at each end so as to offer the least possible resistance to
the water. Four sticks passing diagonally downwards from each of the
transverse poles are sunk into the float and firmly secure it. A strip of
the inner portion of the outrigger frame is converted into a platform by
long sticks laid lengthways close to each other--here the sails, masts,
poles, spears, and other articles are laid when not in