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Using inflated bullock-skin boats to cross the river Sutlej in India, 1908.
This photograph of inflated bullock skin boats at the side of the river Sutlej, in Himachal Pradesh, was taken back in 1903, by James Ricalton. This image is described by Ricalton in ‘India Through the Stereoscope’ (1907):
"I have crossed the river several times on these inflated bullock-skins…The drea-man, after inflating the skin as you see them doing here, places it on the water and places himself on his stomach athwart the skin with his feet in the water; he holds a short paddle in his hands. The intending passenger sits erect, astride the drea-man…You have observed how the skin for this purpose is taken from the animal in one piece and how all openings in the skin are closed except in one leg which is kept open for inflation…These drea-wallahs can drive the skins across the river during high floods when the best swimmer would be helpless in the powerful current."
