### L572 dugout canoes are terrifying Dugouts have crossed rivers and lakes since very early times and need little improvement to do so. I must confess that they terrify me, and with good reason. On numerous occasions, I crossed crocodile-infested rivers in Africa in wildly gyrating, heavily laden dugouts with the water but a couple of inches below the edge. Fortunately, only once did we go in, and that was in the shallows, when someone accidentally stepped on the edge of the canoe. Dugouts are easily hollowed out from straight tree trunks, but, inevitably, they are long and narrow. This makes even a well-built example potentially unstable, even in calm water and expert hands. - [[Beyond the Blue Horizon by Brian Fagan#L572 dugout canoes are terrifying|View in Vault]]