In Colonial India, locals in Himalayas and Punjab region had used inflated bullock skins as boat service to carry passengers across rivers. The technique of using inflated animal skins as a floating raft has been practiced for centuries across cultures, from Babylon to China, from Tibet to Egypt. India too adopted this brilliant ancient technique.
The skin from the animal is taken in one piece and all orifices in the skin are closed except in one leg which is kept open for inflation. Then the boatman inflates the skin through that opening in the leg by blowing from his mouth. The skins have been made air-tight and inflated with air just as we inflate a floating device. As many of these skins are desired are fastened together by poles so that the ferry boat can be made any size.
Charpoys can be erected on top of the inflated skins to provide comfortable rides to passengers. The boatman would keep paddling the stream with his limbs steering it in the right direction and keep blowing air during the journey.
The boats made of inflated animal skins would also be known locally as ‘drea’ or ‘mussuck,’ The force of the stream would push these one-of-a-kind boats to their desired destination.
In the early 1900s, American school teacher, traveler, and photographer, James Ricalton, went to India and traveled extensively throughout the subcontinent, documenting and recording the lives, culture and customs of the natives through photography. The story was published in 1913 in The Herald of Gospel Liberty, titled “A Year’s Journeying Through India,” where he described this amazing transportation experience on the Sutlej River.
“We are on the left bank of the Sutlej, looking up stream. Upon our right is a mass of rock such as forms the channel of this stream, which is rockbound throughout. It is strong and rapid, narrow and deep.“Like the Bramapootra, the Ganges and _ the Indus, the Sutlej has its origin in Thibet at an elevation of twenty thousand feet above the sea. Think of a descent of such magnitude and what a waste of waterpower ... but here only the dreas can cross.“A drea is an inflated bullock-skin used as a boat. There are four of them before us on the shore. I have crossed this river several times on these inflated bullock-skins, and I am sure that underwriters would call the operation extra hazardous.“The method is briefly this: the drea-man, after inflating the skin by blowing into one of tie hind legs, 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 method is briefly this: the drea-man, after inflating the skin by blowing into one of tie hind legs, 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. This gives a very precarious equilibrium. The drea is exceedingly buoyant; the stability is that of a floating cylinder; feet and paddle in the water on either side form a very insignificant bilgekeel.“Paddling with the feet and with the real paddle gives the propelling power. An ounce of misplaced avoirdupois on either side insures a plunge into the deep and wrathful Sutlej.“When many passengers or much cargo are to be taken across, 2 skins are bound together with sticks, producing greater stability. I've seen hill-women with babies on their backs sit astride the drea-man in the reguiar fashion and cross this swift stream from this very point.“The skin, for this purpose, is taken from the animal in one piece and all openings in it are closed, except the one leg which is left 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.“An unusual testament to human innovation.”
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