The same kind of canoe which is found throughout Torres Strait has been seen to extend from Cape York along the eastern coast as far south as Fitzroy Island,* a distance of 500 miles.  It essentially consists of a hollowed-out log, a central platform, and an outrigger on each side.  The largest canoes which I have seen are those of the Murray and Darnley Islanders, occasionally as much as sixty feet long; those of the Australians are small, varying at Cape York between fifteen and thirty feet in length.  Even the Kowraregas have much finer canoes than their neighbours on the mainland; one which I measured alongside the ship was forty-five feet long and three and a half in greatest width, and could carry with ease twenty-five people.

(Footnote.  At the latter place we found a small canoe with two outriggers concealed on shore among some bushes.  The bark canoes of Rockingham Bay have already been described.  About Whitsunday Passage the canoes, also of bark, are larger and of neater construction:  one which I examined at the Cumberland Isles was made of three pieces of bark neatly sewn together; it was six feet long and two and a half feet wide, sharp at each end, with a wooden thwart near the stem and stern, and a cord amidships to keep the sides from stretching.  In the creeks and bays of the now settled districts of New South Wales another kind of canoe was once in general use.  At Broken Bay, in August 1847, a singular couple of aborigines whom I met upon a fishing excursion had a small canoe formed of a single sheet of bark tied up at each end; on the floor of this they were squatted, with the gunwale not more than six inches above the water’s edge.  Yet this frail bark contained a fire, numbers of spears, fishing lines and other gear.  The woman was a character well known in Sydney—­Old Gooseberry—­said to be old enough to have remembered Cook’s first visit to these shores.)

Mode of constructing and managing them.

The construction of a canoe in the neighbourhood of Cape York is still looked upon as a great undertaking, although the labour has been much lessened by the introduction of iron axes, which have completely superseded those of stone formerly in use.  A tree of sufficient size free from limbs—­usually a species of Bombax (silk-cotton tree) or Erythrina—­is selected in the scrub, cut down, hollowed out where it falls, and dragged to the beach by means of long climbers used as ropes.  The remaining requisites are now added; two stout poles, fourteen to twenty feet in length, are laid across the gunwale, and secured there from six to ten feet apart, and the projecting ends are secured by lashing and wooden pegs to a long float of light wood on each side, pointed, and slightly turned up at the ends.  A platform or stage of small sticks laid across occupies the centre of the canoe, extending on each side, several feet beyond the gunwale, and having on the outside a sort of double fence of upright sticks used for stowing away weapons and other gear.  The paddles are five feet long, with a narrow rounded blade, and are very clumsily made.  The cable is made of twisted climbers—­often the Flagellaria indica—­and a large stone serves for an anchor.