Curious (New York) Natives Greet a Canoe From Afar.

In a city of islands outlined by almost 600 miles of coastline, it should not be such a strange thing, the sight of two men portaging a canoe through the streets. But on Monday morning, when the English artist Simon Starling and a traveling companion, Dante Birch, paddled into the West 79th Street Boat Basin and hoisted their canoe -- a lovely 16-foot striped vessel Mr. Starling had made from African walnut -- on their heads and then began an upland trek to the American Museum of Natural History, Manhattanites stopped to stare as if they had spotted some kind of large, undomesticated animal on the loose. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]