Note 530 — Chapter IV · CALIFORNIANS.

Maurelle's Jour., p. 47. At Clear Lake 'their canoes or rather rafts are made of bundles of the tulé plant.' Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 107. At San Francisco Bay and vicinity 'the only canoes of the Indians are made of plaited reeds.' Kotzebue's New Voy., vol. ii., p. 90. 'They do not possess horses or canoes of any kind; they only know how to fasten together bundles of rushes, which carry them over the water by their comparative lightness.' Chamisso, in Kotzebue's Voy., vol. iii., p. 48. 'Les Indiens font leur pirogues à l'instant où ils veulent entreprendre un voyage par eau; elles sont en roseaux. Lorsque l'on y entre elles s'emplissent à moitié d'eau; de sorte qu'assis, l'on en a jusqu'au gras de la jambe; on les fait aller avec des avirons extrêmement longs, et pointus aux deux extremités.' Choris, Voy. Pitt., part iii., p. 6. Had no boats, but it was reported that they had previously used boats made of rushes. Pickering's Races, in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. ix., p. 103. 'The most rude and sorry contrivances for embarcation I had ever beheld.... They were constructed of rushes and dried grass of a long broad leaf, made up into rolls the length of the canoe, the thickest in the middle and regularly tapering to a point at each end ... appeared to be very ill calculated to contend with wind and waves.... They conducted their canoe or vessel by long double-bladed paddles, like those used by the Esquimaux.' Vancouver's Voy., vol. ii., p. 5. 'The balsas are entirely formed of the bulrush ... commonly the rowers sit on them soaked in water, as they seldom rise above the surface.' Forbes' Cal., p. 191. Build no canoes, but occasionally make use of rafts composed of one or two logs, generally split. Wilkes' Nar., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. v., p. 192. 'The "Balsa" is the only thing of the boat kind known among them. It is constructed entirely of bulrushes ... sit flat upon the craft, soaked in water, plying their paddles ... most of them in all kinds of weather, are either below, or on a level with the water.' Farnham's Life in Cal., p. 368. 'My opinion is that the Indians of California, previous to the occupation by the Jesuit Fathers had no other boats than those made from the tule, and even as late as 1840, I never knew or heard of an Indian using any other.' Phelps' Letter, MS.