1. The Dictionary of the Spanish Academy says that there are two wordsbalsaboth good Spanish, with meanings (1) raft or float, (2) trough or hollow in which flax is macerated in water; hollow for catching the refuse from an oil-press. Smyth,Sailor's Word Book, gives it as the name of a South American tree having a very porous light wood which “is used for the surf-boat called balsa.” At the present timebalsaas an importation into English seems becoming restricted to reed- or grass-bundle craft, particularly those of the New World
2. 1923.Catalogue of the Watercraft Collection in the United States National Museum224Washington
3. 1922.Inca Land97
4. Op. cit.224
5. Op. cit.97