One of this description is made of three logs--rarely two or four--laid side by side, and firmly secured to each other with strips of rattan at each end, and in two or three other places.

The upper surface is smoothed down flat, and the central piece projects a little way at each end which usually shows some rude carving touched up with red and white paint.

As the sea washes over a catamaran during rough weather, on such an occasion a small temporary stage is sometimes erected in the centre, and on this the cargo is secured with strips of cane.
The canoe of this part of New Guinea is usually about twenty-five feet in length, and carries seven or eight people.

It is made of the trunk of a tree, hollowed out like a long trough, roundly pointed at each end, a foot and a half in extreme width, with the sides bulging out below and falling in at top, leaving only eight inches between the gunwales which are strengthened by a pole running along from end to end.

The ends--which are alike--are carved like those of the catamaran in imitation of the head of a turtle or snake, but more elaborately.