Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.1): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

284 PIRAGUAS — CONSTRUCTION. 1829. There is a track branching off from tlie main road to the district of Dalcahue ; but on it, I believe, there is no cause- way. As the only mode of supplying the town of San Carlos with provisions is by water-carriage, it is fre(|[uently ill supplied during winter, when N.W. winds prevent the arrival of the piraguas. A southerly wind for two days, at that season, brings from fifty to a hundred piraguas from Dalcahue and Castro, laden with hams, potatoes, pigs, grain, fowls, calves, dried fish, and charcoal, which are sold at a cheap rate, paying one-tenth to the government. The arrival of so many piraguas at San Carlos creates no slight bustle in the neighbourhood of the mole ; and a stranger happening to arrive at the time would think it a place of con- siderable trade ; the return, however, of the N.W. wind, with all its attendant " vapours, clouds, and storms,"''' very soon dis- pels the illusion : the piraguas depart, one after another, and in two days all is dull and monotonous. These piraguas, the boats used by the natives of the archi- pelago of Childe, are all similar in form and material ; but vary much in size, according to the voyage they have to per- form. The largest are from thirty-five to forty feet long. The head and stern are alike, and resemble those of a whale-boat, being sharp at both ends. The transverse section is that of a thick wedge, so that they have no bearings, and must be extremely unsafe,(y) particularly with so lofty a sail as they hoist; and yet these vessels have made long, and even dangerous passages, as is fully attested in Agiieros's account of the mis- sionaries'" visit to the archipelago southward of Tres Monies. These boats are literally sewn together, there is not a nail used in their construction; every portion of the hull is of a vegetable nature. The lower, or garboard strake, is sewn to the keel by strips of the stem of a creeping plant, called Pepoi,* and the seam is caulked with bark of the alerse, which, while under CvJ When moderately laden they are stiff under sail ; and are not such very bad sea-boats, if properly managed. — R. F. * Molina, i. 167. A species of Dolichos.'