te sea-boats. They
can face almost any sort of weather. They are extremely light, and are
propelled by the natives very swiftly. In these frail canoes the
natives of the Polar Regions pursue seals and whales, and even venture
to attack the walrus in his native element. The kayak is used
exclusively by the men. The oomiak, or women's canoe, is of much larger
and clumsier construction, somewhat like a boat. It is open above, and
can hold a large family of women and children. Like the kayak, it is a
framework of wood covered with seal-skin, and is propelled by means of
short paddles of the spoon form.

The famous "Rob Roy" canoe, which is now so much in vogue among boys and
young men of aquatic tendency, is constructed and managed on precisely
the same principles with the Eskimo kayak; the only difference between
the two being that the "Rob Roy" canoe is made of thin wood instead of
skin, and is altogether a more elegant vessel. An account of it will be
found in our chapter on "Boats." The South Sea islanders also use a
canoe which they propel with a double-bladed paddle similar to that of
the Eskimos. They are wonderfully expert and fearless in the management
of this canoe, as may be seen from the annexed woodcut.

In order to show that the paddle of the canoe is more natural to man
than the oar, we present a picture of the canoe used by the Indians of
the Amazon in South America. Here we see thar the savages of the south,
like their brethren of the north, sit with their faces to the bow and
urge their bark forward by neans of short paddles, without using the
gunwale as a fulcrum. The oar is decidedly a more modern and a more
scientific instrument than the paddle, but the latter is better suited
to some kinds of navigation than the former.

Very different indeed from the light canoes just described are the
canoes of the South Sea islanders. Some are large, and some are small;
some long, some short; a few elegant, a few clumsy; and one or two
peculiarly remarkable. Most of them are narrow, and liable to upset; in
order to prevent which catastrophe the natives have ingeniously, though
clumsily, contrived a sort of "_outrigger_," or plank, which they attach
to the side of the canoe to keep it upright. They also fasten two
canoes together to steady them.

One of these _double canoes_ is thus described by Cheever in his "Island
World of the Pacific:"--"A double canoe is composed of two single ones
of the sam