Volume 1

The heart of Africa : three years' travels and adventures in the unexplored regions of Central Africa from 1868 to 1871 / by Georg Schweinfurth ; translated by Ellen E. Frewer ; with an introduction by Winwood Reade.

Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The heart of Africa : three years' travels and adventures in the unexplored regions of Central Africa from 1868 to 1871 / by Georg Schweinfurth ; translated by Ellen E. Frewer ; with an introduction by Winwood Reade. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    105/618 page 77
    AMBATCH CANOES. bunk. Here we caine across numbers of Shillooks fis]iinf>- in their light canoes of ambatch; darting through the water almost as swiftly as the fish themselves. This speed does not, however, prevent them from having a waddling movement, something like a duck, in their liglit craft. So light are these canoes that one man can carry three of them on his shoulder, although each canoe is capable of holding three men. From a few dozen shoots of ambatch of about three years' growth, a canoe of this kind can be easily produced ; at about six feet high the stem goes rapidly off to a point, so tliat a bundle of them needs only be tied together at the extremities, and there is at once attained a curve that would grace a gondola.* To use these canoes adroitly requires con- Ambatch Canoe. siderable practice, as the least shifting of the centre of gravity is made at the risk of a capsize. Nevertheless, they afforded me good service by taking me to the bank with dry feet, and- by enabling me to make botanical collections from the floating bushes. When the Shillook has come to the end of his voyage, he seizes his gondola like an ancient warrior might his shieLl. He carries it, partly to ensure its safety and partly to allow it to dry, because the ambatch wood easily imbibes moisture and becomes saturated. During our wanderings the crew had made a valuable * The acco.npanying illustration irinvseuts a si.nilar canoo, wci^hi.nr about'10 lbs. ' o'o
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