"Morges is on the Lake of Geneva, in the Canton of Vaud. M. Forel
discovered there two interesting settlements of the bronze age. Two
canoes were found. According to M. Troyon, one of them which had been
carried up on to the bank was not long before it was destroyed. It was
formed of the trunk of an oak, hollowed out like a basin. The other
still lay near some piles in 13 to 15 feet of water. One portion of it
is buried in the sand, the other part, which is not covered, measures
about 10 feet in length by 2 feet in width. It terminates in a point and
has been cut out so as to provide a kind of seat, taken out of the
thickness of the wood at the end, just as in the third canoe represented
in the catalogue of the Copenhagen Museum.
"In France, too, several canoes have been found which date back to
pre-historic times.
"On the 6th of January, 1860, the labourers who were working at the
fortifications which the engineers were making at Abbeville found a
canoe in the place called Saint-Jean-des-Prés, on the left bank of the
canal; it was discovered in the peat, 36 feet below the road and about
220 yards from the railway station. It was made out of a single stick of
oak and was about 22 feet in length; its ends were square and cut in a
slope, so that its upper surface was 8 feet longer than its bottom,
which was flattened off to a width of about 14 inches. The greatest
width of its upper surface, the widest part being placed at about
one-third of its length, measured nearly 3 feet; from this point the
canoe contracted in width, and was not more than 18 inches in width at
the furthest end. Now, as no tree exists which diminishes to this extent
in diameter on so short a length, we must conclude that the trunk which
formed the canoe must have been shaped outside.
"Two projections about 4 inches in thickness, placed 6-1/2 feet from the
narrowest end, and forming one piece with the sides and the bottom,
which in this part are very thick, left between them an empty space
which was probably intended to fit against the two sides of a piece of
wood cut square at the bottom and meant to serve as a mast. The deepest
internal hollow had not more than 10 inches in rise, and the side, which
at the upper part was not more than an inch in thickness, followed the
natural curve of the trunk, and united with the much thicker portion at
the bottom. This canoe, although it was completely uncovered and still
remained in a very good state of preservation, has not been got out from
the place in which it lay.
"In 1834, another canoe was discovered at Estreboeuf, 33 feet long,
about 21 inches wide, and 18 inches deep. The bottom was flat, the sides
cut vertically both within and without, which gave it nearly the shape
of a squared trough. In its widest part it bore some signs of having
carried a mast. It was conveyed to the Museum at Abbeville and became
completely rotten; nothing now is left but shapeless remains.
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