James Cook - A Journal of the proceedings of His Majesty's Bark Endeavour on a voyage round the world, by Lieutenant James Cook, Commander, commencing the 25th of May 1768 - 23 Oct. 1770: No. 234

only which was 63 feet long & 10 or 12 Inches broad & about 1¼ Inch thick, & then were well fited & lashed to the bottom part, there were a number of Thwarts laid aCross & Lashed to each Gunwall as a strengthening to the boat. The head Ornament projected 5 feet without the body of the Boat & was 4 feet high the Stern Ornament was 14 feet high, about 2 feet broad & about 1½ inch thick, it was fixed upon the Stern of the Canoe like the Stern post of a Ship upon her Keel. The Ornaments of both head & Stern & the 2 side boards were of Carved Work & in my opinion neither ill design'd nor executed, all their Canoes are built after this plan & few are less than 20 feet long, some of the small ones we have seen with Outriggers, but this is not Common, in their War Canoes they generally have a quantity of Birds feathers hung in Strings & tied about the Head & stern as an Aditional Ornament they are as various in the heads of their Canoes as we are in those of our Shipping but what is most common is an odd Design'd Figure of a man with as ugly a face as can be conceived, a very large Tongue sticking out of his Mouth & Large white Eyes made of the Shells of Sea Ears, their paddles are small light & neatly made they hardly ever make use of Sails at least that we saw & those they have are but ill contrived being generally a piece of netting spread between 2 Poles which serve for both Mast & Yards. The Houses of these People are better calculated for a Cold than a Hot Climate, they are built low & in form of an [Margin note: Houses] oblong square, the framing is of wood or small sticks & the sides & Covering of thatch made of long Grass the door is generally at one end & no bigger than to admit of a man to Creep in & out, just within the door is the fire place & over the door or on one side is a Small hole to let out the Smoke, these houses are 20 or 30 feet long others not above half as long this depends on the largeness of the Family they are to contain for I believe few familys are without such a House as these altho' they do not always live in them especially in the summer season when many of them live dispers'd up & down in little Temporary Hutts that are not sufficient to shelter them from the wear .
[Margin note: Working Tools] The Tools with which they work with in building their Canoes Houses etc. are adzes or Axes, some made of a hard black stone & others of green Talk. They have Chisszels made of the same but these are more commonly made of Human bones, in working small work & carving I believe they use mostly Peices of Jasper breaking small Peices from a large Lump & they have for that purpose, as soon as the small peice is blunted they.