Identifier: jungletrailsjun00whit (find matches)
Title: Jungle trails and jungle people : travel, adventure and abservation in the Far East
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Whitney, Caspar, 1862-1929
Subjects: Hunting
Publisher: New York : C. Scribner
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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ows all over this country and is theSiamese shingle. The boat is propelled by oars,bow and stern, set in a twisted cane rowlock fas-tened to the top of a post about eighteen inches ormore high and set on the port side of the stern andon the starboard side of the bow. The oarsmensend the boat forward by pushing the oar fromthem, bringing it back with the familiar canoe-paddle motion without taking the blade out of thewater. It is much like the stroke of the Venetiangondolier, only the boat movement of the Siameseis more rhythmical, and becomes graceful in therua chang, where the left foot of the oarsmanclears the deck on the forward push and swingsin unison with the blade. There is less oppor-tunity for pleasing motion on the house-boat wherestrength rather than grace is the desideratum, andin freight boats laden with rice—which are simplyhouse-boats built heavier and broader—the menheave on their oars without any other regard thangetting the boat along; and this they do with nota-
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1 OF SIAM 49 ble success. I have seen freight lx>ats of large sizeand heavily laden with padi (rice) moving alongthe klawngs propelled by two men. one bow and one stern. In open rivers these padi boats sometimes,with a fair wind, hoist sail. I have said that Saw was an expert waterman,but that does not sufficiently describe the skill hedisplayed in taking us safely around the manyturns of the klawngs, and in avoiding collisionwith the innumerable and often recklessly pilotedcraft we were continuously meeting. Seldom haveI had a more interesting trip than through theseklawngs, literally alive in parts with boats of allsizes, carrying crews of men, women and children.Every now and again we passed a settlement, andalways there was human life on the water andjungle-life along the banks. Now we come to asquat, heavily laden rice-boat moving ponderously,yet steadily under the two oars of its crew of oneChinaman and a single Simo-Chinese. Then an im-portant looking house-boat with teak in

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