Dug-out Canoe in Algoa Bay

Abstract

THE canoe found on the shore of Algoa Bay and illustrated in Mr. FitzSimon's letter in NATURE of May 21, p. 746, differs in several respects from those of the Mawken or Selungs of the Mergui Archipelago. During many months spent among those people, I do not remember ever to have seen a Mawken canoe, a kabang, in which the solid hull, apart from the palm stem bulwarks, did not have a gradual sheer from amidships upwards to bow and stern. But more important still, the Selung kabang has a semi-circular notch cut out of the prow and stern of the hull. These form steps by which it is safe and easy to climb into the canoe from the water. I feel sure that whatever may be the origin of the canoe found in South Africa, it did not come from the Mergui Archipelago.