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The race was to be between the Algonquin, eight-oared boat with outriggers, rowed by young men, students of Stoughton University, and the Atalanta, also eight-oared and outrigger boat, by young ladies from the Corinna Institute.
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. 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.
The air still rang with laughter and alohas, and the rippling music of the Hawaiian tongue; bananas and pineapples were still piled in fragrant heaps; the drifts of surf rolled in, as then, over the barrier reef, canoes with outriggers still poised themselves on the blue water; the coral divers still plied their graceful trade, and the lazy ripples still flashed in light along the palm-fringed shore.
"They won't keep company with me on land," Hefty complained, bitterly, "and they can't keep company with me in the water; so I lose both ways." Young Burke held these gentlemen of the rowing clubs in great contempt, and their outriggers and low-necked and picturesque rowing clothes as well.
Then, remember, we have to fit her with outriggers, which we must make as strong as possible, or they may chance to be carried away." "Oh, you don't know how hard I shall work when I once begin," answered Lord Reginald.
They were of two kinds, double and single. The single were from twenty to thirty feet long, and twenty-two inches broad in the middle, with wedge-shaped heads and sterns, and decked over at both ends, leaving only a third part open. They had outriggers, and some few carried sails, but were generally impelled by short paddles, the blades of which were broadest in the middle.
On the following day, the ice remaining as before, the work was continued without intermission, and a great quantity of things landed. The armourer was also set to work on the beach in forging bolts for the martingales of the outriggers.
They had also holes in their ears, in which they wore similar ornaments. Their canoes were ingeniously formed with outriggers on one side, the head and stern especially being adorned with carved work, of fowls, fish, or a human hand. They managed their paddles with great dexterity. Their weapons were lances, swords, and slings, and some had bows and arrows.
In the night we found more difficulty as the caravan horses desired to keep the road, and their drivers were generally asleep. We were bumped against innumerable sleds in the hours of darkness. The outriggers alone prevented our sleighs going to pieces. The trains going eastward carried assorted cargoes of merchandise for Siberia and China.
Lastly, the troika must present a fan-like front; to produce which the driver tightens the outside reins till the heads of the outriggers stand out at an angle of forty or fifty degrees from that of the horse in the shafts.
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