Still they require to bail frequently, using for this purpose the large shell of the Melo ethiopica.

In calms and light airs these canoes of Coral Haven may be overtaken without difficulty by a fast-pulling ship's boat, but on going to windward with a moderate breeze and a little head-sea they appeared to have the advantage.

The sails are from twelve to fifteen feet in length and a yard wide--made of coarse matting of the leaf of the coconut-tree stretched between two slender poles.

The mast is stepped with an outward inclination into one of three or four holes in a narrow shifting board in the bottom of the canoe, and is secured near the top to a slender stick of similar length made fast to the outside part of the outrigger; a second pole is then erected stretching diagonally outwards and secured to the outer one near its centre.

Against the framework thus formed the sails are stuck up on end side by side to the number of three or four, occasionally even five, and kept in their places by long sticks placed transversely, their ends as well as those of the mast being sharpened to serve as skewers which in the first instance secure the sails.