We folded the corners in and caught them
up with strips over the top. Then, with longer strips, we
fastened up the sides, passing the strips back and forth across
the top, from side to side, having first similarly secured the
two ends. As a final precaution, we passed broader strips around
both top and bottom, lashing them together in the center of the
top. And there was our raft, twelve feet square, over a foot
deep, water-tight as a town drunkard, and weighing not more than
a hundred pounds. It has taken me two minutes to tell it; it took
us two weeks to do it.
But we discovered immediately that the four beams on the sides
and ends were not enough, for Desiree's weight alone caused the
skin to sag clear through in the center, though we had stretched
it as tightly as possible. We were forced to unlash all the
strips running from side to side and insert supports, made of
smaller bones, across the middle each way. These we reinforced on
their ends with the thickest hide we could find, that they might
not puncture the bottom. After that it was fairly firm; though
its sea-worthiness was not improved, it was much easier to
navigate than it would have been before.
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